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Nut Your Regular Butter
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Nut Your Regular Butter
Four reasons to eat more nut butters.
Remember the days of PB&J sandwiches? A staple in many school lunches, peanut butter makes lunch preparation easy and healthy. Just slather some peanut butter on a slice of bread, spread jelly on another, press the slices together, and lunch is ready.
However, with the incredible increase of peanut allergies, PB&J has become a thing of the past in many households. Fortunately, a number of new nut butters have become popular to fill the void. You can find spreads made with a variety of nuts, from almonds or hazelnuts to walnuts, cashews, and macadamias.
As you shop for nut butters, you may wonder which type of nut butter is best. And here’s some good news: you really can’t go wrong with any of them. So experiment with different kinds to find the ones you like best. Then spread it on your toast, use it as a dip for apple slices, or put it in your breakfast smoothie and enjoy.
Here are four reasons why you should try a new nut butter today.
Healthy Fats
As you know by now, there’s good fat and bad fat. Your body needs good fat for energy and cell growth. Fat also helps your body absorb nutrients, stabilize blood sugar, and produce hormones. One of nature’s best sources of healthy fats? Nuts! In fact, they’re made of up to 80-percent fat, including all the fats your body needs—monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and omega-3 fatty acids.
While all nut butters are good for you, be picky about the kind your purchase.
Read the ingredient labels to make sure it isn’t made with partially hydrogenated oil, which is not good for you. This can be slipped into any nut butter, so keep an eye open for it.
Weight Maintenance
Like most things that taste amazing, nuts are high in calories. For this reason, you must eat them in moderation. But because they’re also high in protein and fiber, nuts are actually helpful for weight loss. Protein and fiber fill you up, help keep your blood sugar stable, and provide lasting energy so you don’t have to eat as much to fill up. To keep from eating too many, remember that a handful is considered one serving. When dealing with nut butters, scan the label to see how much a single serving is and stick with that.
Heart Healthy
Eating a handful of nuts several times a week will greatly reduce your risk of heart disease. The same is true if you down a dish with nut butter. The unsaturated fats, fiber, and plant sterols found in nuts help prevent high cholesterol. With high cholesterol, the arteries harden and plaque builds up in blood vessels, putting you at risk for heart attack, stroke, and heart rhythm irregularities. So spread more nut butter for your heart.
Nutrients for Health
Yes, nuts are high in protein, fiber, and unsaturated fats, but they’re also loaded with nutrients including magnesium, potassium, zinc, niacin, copper, folic acid, vitamin B6, and vitamin E. Each of these nutrients plays a different role in keeping your mind and body healthy and strong. You may be deficient in nutrients, but eating nut butter helps ensure you’re getting enough of these vital nutrients each day. Keep in mind that some nuts are higher in certain nutrients than others. Check nutrition labels to see what your nut butter contains.
Besides nutrients, nuts are rich in antioxidants that fight the free radicals that cause cell damage, cancer, heart disease, and other diseases. When you eat nut butter, you’re giving your body a healthy dose of phenols, polyphenols, flavonoids, selenium, manganese, vitamin C, and vitamin E.
Look for all-natural or organic brands of nut butter. Watch out for varieties that contain added sugars, salt, or preservatives, as these can be as bad for you as prepackaged TV dinners.
