NUTS TO YOU!!

Nutritionists say you can eat those glistening Marcona almonds, crunchy blistered peanuts, spicy walnuts and even big fat Brazil nuts without fear of artery-clogging paybacks down the line.

In fact, nuts can actually make you healthier. And, unless you gobble handfuls on top of your usual chow, they won’t make you fat.

“The data on nuts are really amazing,” says Penny Kris-Etherton, an expert on lipids and heart disease at Pennsylvania State University, and member of the advisory committee drawing up new federal dietary guidelines due for release early next year.

“The more you eat, the lower the risk of heart disease. You can reduce your risk anywhere from 40 percent to 50 percent,” Kris-Etherton says. “The results have been very consistent.”

Oil-filled nuts were like poison during the long “fear of fat” era. But now, in the new “learning-to-love-good-fats” era, nuts have won back their hippie-era status as health foods. Some fats are good for you — polyunsaturates and monounsaturates, the kinds packed into nuts (and olives). Nuts are also crammed with protein, vitamins, phytonutrients and fiber.

That means, according to more than a decade of studies, that eating nuts lowers bad cholesterol (LDL) and blood fats (triglycerides), keeps good cholesterol (HDL) high, cuts the risk of heart attack, can help prevent adult- onset diabetes and metabolic syndrome, and may prevent gallstones.

The 2005 federal dietary guidelines won’t specify a low- or moderate-fat diet, as previous versions have. Instead, they’ll tell people to “choose fats wisely” — avoid trans and saturated fats but consume up to 35 percent of their calories in good fats. And that means nuts, among other things.

The rehabilitation of nuts has been building for a decade — since a large study of Seventh-day Adventists in the early 1990s revealed that people who eat nuts regularly are less likely to have heart attacks or to die from heart disease than people who rarely eat them, according Dr. Walter Willett, chair of the Nutrition Department at Harvard’s School of Public Health. Willett’s voice has been one of the strongest in pushing for reform of U.S. dietary guidelines to emphasize good fats (and carbohydrates) over bad ones.

Kris-Etherton and Willett say the Seventh-day Adventist findings were so striking that they spurred a burst of research into nuts that now has involved 200,000 men and women of all ages.

Ongoing studies continue to confirm that nuts, like olive oil, fish and other Mediterranean-diet foods high in unsaturated fats, are better for your heart than the pastas and refined carbs of low-fat diets. That’s because unsaturated fats keep your good cholesterol high, while reducing bad cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood; low-fat diets reduce good cholesterol as well as the bad kind, and also raise triglycerides.

Along with about 14 grams of fat (most of it unsaturated), an ounce of nuts has 4 to 8 grams of protein — a glass of milk has 8 — plus various micronutrients. And nuts are digested slowly, helping control appetite and blood sugar.

Walnuts contain lots of an omega-3 fat called alpha-linolenic acid. A study published last month by Kris-Etherton and others showed that ALA reduced cholesterol and fats in the blood, and also C-reactive protein (CRP), an inflammatory marker that is associated with heart disease.

A tablespoon of peanut butter or an ounce of nuts five days a week reduced the risk of developing adult-onset diabetes by 20 to 30 percent in a 2002 study by Dr. Frank Hu of Harvard. A recent Australian study suggested walnuts can lower diabetes risk.

Another Harvard study published last month showed that men who ate nuts five times a week were significantly less prone to gallstones.

And, several epidemiological studies have shown that people who eat nuts tend to be slimmer, not fatter, and that eating nuts helps people stick to their diets and lose more weight, according to a letter from Hu to the Food and Drug Administration.

The evidence is so convincing that the FDA agreed in July to let nut packagers put a qualified heart-health claim on labels for peanuts, almonds, walnuts, pistachios, pecans and hazelnuts. The rule leaves out cashews, macadamias, Brazil nuts and some pine nuts because they contain a tad too much saturated fat for the FDA.

But experts like Kris-Etherton and Hu don’t draw those kinds of distinctions.

“They all have unique characteristics,” says Kris-Etherton. “Walnuts are really good. Some (nuts) are a teeny bit higher in saturated fats, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think people should eat them. Brazils are so high in selenium, I think it’s OK to eat one Brazil nut.” Selenium is an antioxidant necessary for good health.

Nuts are so tantalizing — unless you’re allergic — that consumers have had no trouble running with the new nuts-are-good-for-you message.

The nut industry has gone to town with advertising and promotion. Almond growers and walnut packers all want you to believe their nuts are best.

The Almond Board of California alone is spending $10 million this year on ads and promotions, plus $1 million for health research. The push has raised American almond consumption to a pound a year, twice the level of five years ago, according to Colleen Aguiar of the almond board.

Sales of all nuts and snacks, including pumpkin and sunflower seeds, which fit the same health profile, are up as well. Supermarket nut sales rose 15 percent in the last 12 months alone, to $1.4 billion, according to IRI, a market data firm in Chicago.

Another vivid measure of the trend: Trader Joe’s El Cerrito store had 65 kinds of nuts, not counting trail mixes, on its shelves on a recent Thursday. Altogether, the chain distributes 175 different nut products — salted, unsalted, half-salted, roasted or not, wasabi-coated, blistered or raw and ready to grind into holiday marzipan.

Coming up with ways to fit them into your diet is no problem. You can slip toasted nuts into salads, stir-frys and just about any cookie recipe. Ground, they can thicken a sauce or a curry, or replace flour in piecrusts. Or, you can eat them as is — a few go a long way toward satisfying the urge to snack.

For parties, they’re easy and versatile. You can roast pumpkin seeds with chiles and garlic to make Mexican-style pepitas; add five-spice powder and fennel for an Asian taste; toss with flattened rice, raisins and spices for an Indian chiwda; or simply toast with a little rosemary.

The real challenge is keeping yourself from inhaling handful after addictive handful, or pigging out on sugar-glazed versions.

Nuts are calorie bombs. One ounce — 23 almonds, or a scant 1/4 cup of peanuts — has about 160 to 180 calories, which is about one-tenth or so of daily caloric intake. The studies show that all you need to improve your health is 1 ounce (or 1 tablespoon of nut butter), five days a week — though more won’t hurt you if you don’t bust your calorie limit. The trick, Kris-Etherton says, is to substitute nuts for foods you’d normally eat.

At a party, she says, “a couple of ounces are OK. It depends on what people are doing. Are they going to the party and this is dinner? Or is this pre-dinner?”

She suggests munching on a few nuts instead of high-carb, non-nutritive pretzels. Or, have some pretzels but skip the sour cream dip and have a few nuts instead.

“What I think people should do is maybe take a teeny bit of everything,” Kris-Etherton says. “If you tell people to take just nuts, they won’t fill up on that.” Or, they’ll eat too many.

As for salt, Kris-Etherton points out that one ounce of salted peanuts contains about the same sodium as a slice of whole wheat bread. That’s not a lot.

On the other hand, there’s so much extra salt in Americans’ diet that it can’t hurt to be careful, she says. A strategy she uses with her husband, who likes salty nuts, is to mix equal quantities of lightly salted and unsalted nuts.

Sugar-glazed nuts can be good for dessert, sprinkled on cut-up fruit. And nut oils can be used on salads or in cooking, as an alternative to regular vegetable oils.

Kris-Etherton’s full of culinary tips. But people really want just one thing.

“They always say to me, ‘Which nut is best? The most potent?’ ” she says. And she always tells them, “I think all nuts are good.”

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Nutty basics
— One ounce of nuts is about what fits in an Altoids box: 14 walnut halves, 23 almonds, 6 to 8 Brazil nuts, a scant 1/4 cup of peanuts or 142 pumpkin seeds, according to the USDA. Nutritionists recommend one ounce, or one tablespoon of nut butter, five days a week.

— Nuts are about half fat, with 12 to 14 grams of fat per ounce, about the same as a tablespoon of olive oil (except super-rich macadamias, which have 22). Most of the fats are mono- or polyunsaturated.

— Nuts contain 4 to 8 grams of protein per ounce; for comparison, a glass of milk has 8 grams; a 3-ounce lean lamb chop has 25.

— Nuts go stale, and even rancid, very quickly, because their polyunsaturated fats break down easily. So it’s a good idea to buy nuts from stores that sell a lot of them and are constantly getting fresh stock. If you’re buying from bulk bins, smell the nuts and ask for a taste. Pull dates on packaged nuts are no guarantee of freshness. Nuts keep in the refrigerator for a month, and in the freezer for a year. Don’t eat rancid nuts.

— Nuts are good for you whether they’re raw, roasted or ground up as nut butter. Roasting your own delivers the most flavor. Toss 2 cups of nuts with a tablespoon or so of oil, chopped herbs if you like, and roast in a 350? oven for 8-10 minutes, or until brown. Avoid peanut butters made with trans fats (partially hydrogenated fats).

— Nut oils carry many of nuts’ benefits and are good for salads and cooking. Cold-pressed, less-refined versions are healthiest. They should be kept in the refrigerator.

— Carol Ness In the: San Francisco Chronicle

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