Sunday 5 December 2010

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Walnuts/Valnødder/核桃[hétáo]


Serving Ideas:
1. Just chop and add to your favorite salad, vegetable dish, fruit, or dessert.

2. Mix crushed walnuts into plain yogurt and top with maple syrup.
Add walnuts to salads or healthy sautéed vegetables.

3. Purée walnuts, cooked lentils and your favorite herbs and spices in a food processor. Add enough olive or flax oil so that it achieves a dip-like consistency.

4. Add walnuts to your favorite poultry stuffing recipe.

5. To roast walnuts at home, do so gently-in a 160-170°F (about 75°C) oven for 15-20 minutes-to preserve the healthy oils. For more on the effect of high heat roasting on nuts, please see the following article.

6. Make homemade walnut granola: Mix together approximately 1/2 cup of honey, 3 to 4 tablespoons of blackstrap molasses, a tablespoon of vanilla, a dash of salt, and a teaspoon each of your favorite spices, such as cinnamon, ginger and/or nutmeg. Place 6-8 cups of rolled oats in a large bowl and toss to coat with the honey-blackstrap mixture. Then spread on a cookie sheet and bake at 275°F (135°C) for 45 minutes. Cool and mix in 1/2 to 1 cup of walnuts.

Nutritional Value:
Walnuts are an excellent source of omega-3 essential fatty acids. Walnuts are also a very good source of the manganese and a good source of copper. In addition, walnuts contain the antioxidant phytochemical, ellagic acid.

Additional Information:
Researchers are convinced - more than ever before - about the nutritional benefits of walnuts when consumed in whole form, including the skin. We now know that approximately 90% of the phenols in walnuts are found in the skin, including key phenolic acids, tannins, and flavonoids. Some websites will encourage you to remove the walnut skin - that whitish, sometimes waxy, sometimes flaky, outermost part of shelled walnuts. There can be slight bitterness to this skin, and that's often the reason that websites give for removing it. However, we encourage you not to remove this phenol-rich portion.

The form of vitamin E found in walnuts is somewhat unusual, and particularly beneficial. Instead of having most of its vitamin E present in the alpha-tocopherol form, walnuts provide an unusually high level of vitamin E in the form of gamma-tocopherol. Particularly in studies on the cardiovascular health of men, this gamma-tocopherol form of vitamin E has been found to provide significant protection from heart problems.

7 shelled walnuts per day is the minimal amount needed to provide statistically significant benefits, and that's the amount recommended to be incorporated into the daily diet.

China is presently the largest commercial producer of walnuts in the world, with about 360,000 metric tons produced per year. The United States is second, with about 294,000 metric tons of production. Within the U.S., about 90% of all walnuts are grown in California, particularly within the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys The annual combined walnut output of Iran and Turkey is approximately the same as the United States, and the Ukraine and Romania are next in line in terms of total walnut production.

Additional Information:
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=99#healthbenefits
http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=recipe&dbid=67

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