What You Need to Know About ... Nuts, Beans & Oils

By David Bjerklie

MAGIC FOODS

In other cultures, nuts, seeds and beans make up a major part of the diet, supplying all sorts of key nutrients that are hard to replace. If Americans could incorporate more of them into meals, much as we have embraced olive oil to replace less healthy sources of fat, our collective health would improve, and our average waistline would shrink. Here's why:

SEAL OF APPROVAL

Although we tend to think of them as snack foods, nuts and seeds are actually terrific sources of protein, healthy oils and other nutrients, especially vitamin E. For that reason, the American Heart Association has allowed packages of nuts to carry the qualified health claim that they "may reduce the risk of heart disease."

RESTRAINING ORDER

But, yes, you can have too much of a good thing. For all their benefits, nuts and seeds are high-calorie foods because of the oils they contain. Beyond that, they often come heavily dosed with salt, sugar or both. Tossing back bagfuls of salted, sugared beer nuts while watching the ball game on TV is not the same as going to the gym.

SOMETIMES YOU FEEL LIKE A NUT

As a healthier alternative to chips or pretzels, try reaching for almonds, walnuts, pecans or plain old goobers. But, again, use moderation. Once you start eating nuts, it's hard to stop. Think handfuls, not bowlfuls. Eat like a bird: add seeds such as sunflower, pumpkin and sesame to your diet in trail mix, granola, muffins, bread and occasionally even cookies.

FOLLOW THE PATH OF THE BEAN

No restraint is necessary with kidney beans, lentils, chickpeas and their brother beans. They're low in fat and calories and packed with fiber, protein and minerals--and they fill you up to boot. There's a big, beautiful world of legumes, and they play an important role in many ethnic cuisines. Use them dried, fresh, canned or frozen in soups, stews, chilies, curries, pilafs and falafel.

BATTLE OF THE FOOD PYRAMIDS

The USDA's Food Guide Pyramid has turned into a battleground over how much fat is good for you. On one side are those like Dr. Dean Ornish of the University of California, San Francisco, who want you to slash fat intake to 10% of daily calories. On the other is Harvard's Dr. Walter Willett, who favors the Mediterranean diet, which permits as much as 40% of calories to come from fat as long as they are from a healthy fat such as olive oil.

LESSER OF TWO EVILS?

When all fat became bad, anything nonfat became good. Unfortunately, "low-fat" or "fat-free" products are often high in sugar, making them caloric catastrophes.

WARNING

We usually know when we eat animal or butterfat. But we often don't when we consume palm and coconut oils, used to fry chips and often found in margarine, chocolates, whipped cream and toppings, even nondairy creamers.

700 MILLION Pounds of peanut butter consumed by Americans each year. That is enough spread to cover the floor of the Grand Canyon

30% Reduction in cholesterol levels achieved by researchers prescribing a special fiber-rich vegetarian diet that included soy protein and almonds

70% Decrease in the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease if you eat a diet high in vitamin E, according to a preliminary study

1.5 THOUSAND Average number of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches eaten by U.S. children by the time they graduate from high school

15 THOUSAND Species in the legume family, which includes chickpeas and lentils. They have been cultivated for 9,000 years

35 Average pounds of olive oil consumed per capita annually in Greece. U.S. consumption is only a tiny fraction of that

22% Reduction in the risk of heart disease of men and women who ate legumes at least four times a week, according to a 19-year study that tracked them

NUTS ABOUT NUTS We eat 2 billion lbs. a year. Per person, that works out to:

Peanuts 5.8 lbs. a year Almonds 0.51 lbs. a year Walnuts 0.45 lbs. a year

FAT STATS Sure, we know there are saturated fats in red meat and butter. But here's the lineup of a bunch of other usual suspects, indicating what percentage of total fat is saturated.

Coconut oil 92% Butterfat 64% Beef fat 52% Palm oil 51% Lard 41% Chicken fat 31% Peanut oil 18% Soybean oil 15% Olive oil 14% Corn oil 13% Sunflower oil 9% Safflower oil 9% Canola oil 6%

Source: USDA Economic Research Service

Recommended daily grams of total fat/saturated fat

53/17 Women and older adults 73/24 Men, active women, teen girls, children 93/31 Active men and teen boys