Top Health Benefits of Chefs & Co Walnuts

1. Calories and Fats - Your body gets 687 calories when you consume around 100g walnuts. Fats are in the range of 64 gm, which happen to be basically EFAs (Essential Fatty Acids). EFAs cannot be synthesized in the body; we need to obtain them by in taking foods, which are rich in EFAs. EFAs are quite essential for the functioning of many organs in the body, especially the brain. Walnuts are cholesterol free and lower LDL levels also, keeping your heart healthy.

2. Proteins-The protein content in walnuts is optimum for a good health. Walnuts provide you with essential amino acids, which are good proteins.

3. Vitamins - 3% of 100 g of walnuts consists of vitamins, mainly vitamin E in the form of tocopherol.

4. Fiber - 3g dietary fibre is present in every 100 g of walnut. This helps in easy digestion of food and healthy bowel movement.

5. Omega 3 Fatty Acids - Walnuts are a great source of omega 3 fatty acids. It helps in preventing diseases, aids in clotting of blood and boosts body immunity and growth of cells. Walnut contains the precursor alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), which inside the body gets transformed into an EPA and DHA acids, essential for the body.

6. Other Nutrients - Phosphorus is available in abundance in walnuts. One walnut satisfies the daily body requirement of phosphorus for an individual. Not to forget, the body even gets its supply of minerals like Calcium, Manganese, Magnesium and Iron.

Top 14 Health Benefits of Walnuts

Breast and prostate cancer seems to be very prevalent these days. Though no proper cure has been identified yet, one of the health benefits of walnut seems it can prevent the growth of cancerous cells. This is evident from various researchers performed on humans, rats and mice by the Marshall University School Of Medicine, West Virginia. The mice were injected with HT 29 human colon cancer cells. The mice fed with walnuts showed 27% slower rate of growth of cancer as compared to the corn-oil fed mice. Also the Omega 3 fatty acids, phytosterols, vitamin E and antioxidants present in walnuts when combined together work against the cancer cell growth.

In addition to the health benefits of walnuts mentioned above, they help rid your body of free radical agents because they also contain a high level of antioxidants – both free antioxidants and antioxidants bound to fibre. The polyphenols in fact even boosts a number of antioxidants already present in your body by adding more of it. For confirming these facts, a research was conducted by USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, Boston, where 20 non-smoking adults were subjected to low polyphenol diet. The results showed a significant rise of antioxidants in the body of people who consumed walnuts regularly.

Polyphenols helps de-oxidize your body and lowers your blood pressure thereby preventing many heart diseases. The fatty acid component present in a walnut is also a major contributor here.

Traces of anti-inflammatory substances can also be found in walnuts. Eating walnuts regularly can also curb many inflammatory diseases like asthma, arthritis, eczema etc.

Eating walnut also helps you sleep well because it contains melatonin. 1 gm of walnut has around 3.6 nanogram melatonin. Melatonin is an important messaging molecule in our nervous system and its regulatory behaviour is no less than a hormone. Melatonin manages the light-dark adjustment and daily rhythms. Also, the omega 3 fatty acids relieve you of stress too while improving the responses generated by your brain.

Walnuts help to make the thinking process of an individual smoother while being a potential promoter of the growth of memory area. Even the impaired memory area seems to get better with regular consumption of walnuts.

Walnuts are great natural weight managers, especially for the glutton souls. A research by International Journal of Obesity confirms the above fact. As less as 28 g of walnuts, contains 2.5g of omega 3 fatty acids, 4g of proteins and 3g of fibre. These are enough to lower the levels of harmful LDL cholesterol in your body. Walnuts do add a lot of calories but that does no harm, it will boost HDL level in your body. Eating three walnuts every day helps you reduces LDL and boost HDL.

Air pollution and poor eating habits have damaged the skin and hair tremendously. But a small effort of consuming walnuts can work wonders for your skin and hair. Walnuts are said to strengthen hair follicles, hair strands and cut down the hair fall because they are rich in Vitamin B7. One of the unknown health benefits of walnuts is that it helps prevent dandruff. A natural way to keep your scalp clean and hair healthy. Walnut oil is the best form of walnut to be used for hair. However, even the husk of walnut can be used to intensify the colour of your hair. The proteins in walnuts impart a natural luster to your hair as well.

Walnuts can be minced, mixed with honey and spread all over your face as a face pack, thus making your skin glow. For skin moisturization, apply warm walnut oil all over the dry patches of skin before going to bed. Vitamin B component of walnut oil helps to reduce dark circles and puffiness around the eyes while delaying skin ageing when applied regularly over a span of a year. It can also help in tuning your mood and levels of stress.

Walnuts maintain the balance between sperm production, regulation and ejection. Consuming just 75 g of walnuts each day improves the quality of sperm and thus the progeny. All these qualities of walnuts are attributed to its a-linolenic acid content, which is a source of omega 3 fatty acids.

Walnuts is highly beneficial for all the expecting mothers. Eating walnuts assists in the brain development of the child inside the womb. Walnuts also destroy any kind of allergic diseases that might affect the growing fetus. This is because they are great sources of Vitamin B complexes like thiamin, riboflavin, folates etc. These health benefits of walnuts make them a great pregnancy food.

One of the long-term health benefits of walnuts is it reduces fasting insulin levels over a long term.

In another research conducted, increasing intake of polyunsaturated fats with walnuts in a low-fat diet supported long-term weight loss in diabetes patients. In the study, patients consumed 30gms of walnuts per day and saw sustained weight loss.

Bones can be made stronger and healthier by the consumption of alpha-linolenic acid, which is an essential fatty acid and present in good quantities in walnut. This compound also decreases the inflammation level in the body thus providing a congenial environment for the healthy growth of bones. Reap health benefits of walnuts by consuming it on a regular basis.

The fibre content of walnuts here comes into action. Fibers aid in a proper bowel movement and consuming walnuts is one of the easiest ways to aid digestive system’s functioning.

Just be careful that your daily consumption does not exceed 10% of your healthy diet else this may lead to the formation of kidney stones. Walnuts are high in oxalates and this may be a heavily contributing factor in the formation of kidney stones.

These are the top health benefits of walnuts. Those who have difficulties in digesting walnuts can eat walnuts after soaking them overnight in water. Dipping in water will soften the nut and help you reap the amazing walnut benefits.