What is loaded with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and healthy fats and supports the health of every cell in your body?
You guessed it (from the title): Nuts & Seeds
Specifically, they contain
- monounsaturated fats (omega-9)
- polyunsaturated fats (omega-3 and omega-6)
- fat-soluble vitamins (vitamin E and vitamin K)
- dietary fiber (both soluble and insoluble)
- B vitamins (folate, thiamine)
- minerals (copper, potassium, magnesium, selenium)
- antioxidant compounds (polyphenols)
But these little packages of nutrition vary a lot in their fat, protein, and carbohydrate content.
Like all aspects of eating for health, there are nuances to which one to eat when, how they should be prepared, and for the effect they have on your metabolism.
Before you chow down
First, mind how much you are eating.
Check the nutrient levels below to assess when you want a certain amount of protein, carbohydrate or fat, and notice that the values are for 1/4 cup! Take out a measuring cup to check you know how much that is!
Second, because nuts and seeds can be high in phytic acid, they can be a challenge for some people’s digestive tracts. Simply soaking in water for 18 hours activates enzymes that break down phytic acid and leaches it into the water (so throw out your soak water.) Even sprouting them improves their digestibility. In addition, roasting nuts and seeds reduces their phytates.
Then notice which need further processing to be digestible. For example, flax seeds need to be ground before eating, otherwise they will pass right through your digestive tract. But don’t soak them first or you’ll have a soggy mess!
In addition, it is recommended to soak or grind chia seeds to break down their hard exterior for digestibility.
Go ahead and eat freely after using these processes, because toxic compounds will be minimal and nutrition maximal, unless . . .
Finally, people with the herpes simplex virus (HSV) and a tendency to break out often may experience heightened breakouts due to the high amino acid arginine content of nuts and seeds. Those in this situation need to closely monitor their threshold levels and limit them or possibly counteract with supplementing with L-lysine.
Macro Levels
Then align your choice of nuts or seeds with your eating plan. The information below lists the macros: the protein, fat, and carb content of various common nuts and seeds for handy reference.
Are you protein loading to build muscle? Then add up the protein numbers to see how you can increase the protein content of your yoghurt, cottage cheese, salad, soup, or snack.
Wanting to limit carbs? Consult the number of net carbs each so that you don’t exceed your intended limit.
Looking to add valuable plant-based fats? Track how much with the fat content of each nut and seed listed here.
Thanks to Keto-Mojo for this Chart
. . . and a few not listed here:
• Chestnuts: Protein 1 g; Fat 1 g; Net Carbs 17 g per ¼ cup serving
• Peanuts (technically, a legume): Protein 9.5 g; Fat 18g; Net Carbs 3 g per ¼ cup serving
• Sesame seeds: Protein 6 g; Fat 18 g; Carb 10g; Net Carbs 4 per ¼ cup serving
• Sunflower seeds: Protein 7g; Fat 15 g; Carbs 6 g; Net Carbs 4 per ¼ cup serving
A Note About Carbs and Fiber
What you may not know is that carbohydrate counting includes carbs that are metabolized to become sugar in your blood and fiber which isn’t.
Dietary fiber passes through your stomach and small intestine until it reaches your colon. Depending on the type of fiber, there it is either fermented by bacteria into short-chain fatty acids which are primarily food for the colon’s beneficial bacteria or eliminated in feces.
Therefore, we can subtract the grams of fiber from the carbohydrate content to determine how much of the carbs are burned as fuel. The counting world has named these “Net carbs” as opposed to “total carbs.”
To add one more complication, yet to be complete: Net carbohydrates = total carbohydrates – fiber – erythritol (if applicable).
If you are not familiar with erythritol, it is classified as a sugar alcohol which has a minimal impact on blood glucose and ketone levels because most of it passes into the urine without being metabolized. In other words, don’t worry about it when you are eating nuts and seeds, because there is none in them.
The carb content in the chart is calculated as “net carbs.”
For example, flax seeds have 12 grams of carbs per 1/4 cup serving, but most of it is soluble and insoluble fiber. When you subtract that fiber to get net carbs, it is only 2 per 1/4 cup.
Tips & Tricks
- Ground flax seeds can replace eggs in your baked goods. Use 1/4 cup soaked in 1/3 cup water to replace one egg.
- Which nut looks like a brain? Improve cognitive function and reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease with walnuts!
- Pumpkin seeds are the highest in protein, with nine grams per ¼ cup serving! And with zinc to boot!
- How can you improve digestive health? With ground flaxseeds because they contain both soluble and insoluble fiber.
- Hemp seeds, coming from the marijuana family, contain the minerals potassium, magnesium, sulfur, calcium, iron, zinc, and no mind-altering THC!
- Pecans taste rich but only have 2 net carbs per 1/4 cup serving!
- Just 2 to 3 Brazil nuts a day can fulfill your daily supply of the critical mineral for thyroid health, selenium.
- The creaminess of Macadamia nuts comes from the monounsaturated omega-9 fat which reduces levels of inflammatory chemicals in the body and makes up 50% of the fat in these nuts.
- The antioxidants in Hazelnuts can play a role in immune health and DNA repair. They are also known as Filberts.
- Almonds are particularly high in vitamin E, and study participants increased their blood vitamin E levels and also reduced their inflammatory markers and LDL cholesterol levels by eating almonds.
- Consensus seems to be that to be solidly in a ketogenic state, you must not exceed 20 grams of net carbs per day.
- Download a pdf of my handout with the chart here.
Bonus Recipe
This is the famous “Fasting Crackers” recipe from Dr. Mindy Pelz’s cookbook “Eat Like A Girl.”
These crackers are made completely with seeds! And when baked correctly, they pack a crunch.
You can use your newly acquired skill of counting macros to find out how many you can eat and still stay in the fasted state of ketosis defined as 20 net grams of carbs a day. Check your answer after the recipe!
FASTING CRACKERS
• 1 cup ground flaxseed
• 1/4 cup hemp seeds
• 1/4 cup chia seeds
• 1/2 cup warm water
TO MAKE THE CRACKERS
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
Combine the flaxseed, hemp seeds, and chia seeds in a bowl and mix well. Pour in 1/2 cup of warm water, mix well, and let sit for 10 minutes.
Lay a sheet of parchment paper on your work surface and pour the cracker mixture into the center. Place another sheet of parchment paper over it.
Using a rolling pin or your hands, roll out the mixture until it’s about 1/4 inch thick.
Remove the top sheet of parchment paper and use a knife or a cookie cutter to cut the dough into cracker-size shapes.
Arrange the crackers on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Flip over the crackers and bake for another 10 minutes, or until they’re golden brown.
Remove from the oven. Let the crackers cool completely in the pan.
These crackers can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 weeks.
Makes about 30 1 1/2″ square crackers.
Now, let’s calculate
Dr. Mindy advises to eat no more than 5 of these crackers in order to stay in a fasted state.
I calculate the whole recipe to be 10 + 1 + 1 = 12 net carbs. If the recipe makes 30, 5 crackers is 1/6 the recipe. Therefore 12 g carbs ÷ 6 = 2 net carbs per 5 crackers. That is one-tenth of the 20 net carbs a day to stay in ketosis. Is that right?
Maybe you need to add up the fat calories too? 48 + 10 + 9 = 67 grams of fat. 67 ÷ 6 = 11 grams per 5 crackers. 11 grams x 9 calories per gram = 99 calories. Plus 2 grams of carbs x 4 calories per gram = 8 calories. Total 107 calories. Is this the tipping point?
Anyway, you practiced adding these numbers, and you can see for yourself the effects, depending on which metabolic state you want to be in.
