A Note on Nuts

Nuts can be a delicious, nutritious, and satisfying snack.  Almonds are my personal favorite.  Old me, used to choke down (no pun intended) plain, boring, raw nuts because I knew that the added salt was a no-no in the diet world.  Salt makes you retain water, salt can raise your blood pressure, salt makes your eyes puffy and fingers swollen. 

Well, guess what?  I like salt!  In fact, I love salt.  I have fairly low blood pressure, and I drink tons of water (to somewhat counteract the puffing), so I really don't see the big deal about choosing salted, delicious almonds over their boring, plain cousin - raw almonds.  If i'm choosing a snack of an apple and a handful of salted almonds over say, a bag of Doritos, it's a healthy enough snack for me! 

Just for those who argue how terrible roasted and salted nuts are, let's compare my favorite - Blue Diamond Oven Roasted Almonds to my husband's staple - Plain Old Bulk Food Raw Almonds.  You'll see that they have approximately the same amount of calories, protein, fat, fiber, and carbohydrates.  The Blue Diamond have 135 mg of sodium per serving.  To put that in perspective, a can of Campbell's Select Harvest, Harvest Tomato with Basil soup has 820 mg of sodium.  3/4 cup of Kellogg's Special K, Vanilla Almond cereal has 170 mg of sodium. 

Lesson Learned: If choosing roasted, salted nuts over raw ones make you pick them over something less healthy, dig in!