They're nutritious versatile and universally loved. Every year Americans spend billions of dollars on nuts. With their healthful profile, combined with portability, ease and really low cost of the perfect snack food, crunchy, tasty and adaptable nuts really seem to have it all.
Interestingly, the most popular nut is not even a nut. The peanut of butter fame is actually a member of the legume family. Indigenous to South America, protein packed peanuts were first discovered in the 17th century in Peru, when the Spanish began their conquest of the new world.
In addition to protein, peanuts, like all legumes, are a great source of fiber, B vitamins, magnesium and other minerals. Unfortunately, like other legumes, they're also a source of allergens and lectins, plant defense molecules that can wreak havoc on the joints, skin and the digestive tract. In fact, peanut allergies are not infrequently fatal. True, nuts can also be a cause of immune reactions, although they're also nutrient and protein dense and valuable snack foods.
My personal favorite is the Brazil nut. Prized as a source of selenium, all it takes is one or two to meet the recommended daily requirement of this important element critical for heart health, thyroid functioning and the immune system. The meaty nut may also act like a non-toxic, quick acting, statin drug. In a study performed in Brazil, of course, the native nut was shown to lower LDL cholesterol by 20 points within nine hours of enjoying. Even prescription meds can't work that rapidly.
