It’s no secret that obesity has become a worldwide epidemic. A survey conducted in the United States by World Obesity in 2011-2012 showed that 35.8% of women, 33.3% of men are obese, while 35.2% of girls, and 33.2% of boys are overweight. Given these high rates, it is no surprise that dieting and various weight loss schemes have become an inherent part of our culture. However, as any experienced dieter knows, diets are not always effective, while a good number of these dieting plans are downright unhealthy. A major issue dieters experience is how to keep the weight off long term.
Important Diet Factors
When compiling a dieting plan, some important factors beyond the actual weight loss are:
1. Dieting in a healthy manner
2. Maintaining the weight loss
A common pitfall of dieting revolves around snacking. Once people remove the bags of chips, pretzels, and doughnuts from their pantry, they are often left with a void. This produces a chain reaction, where people begin to dream of food, and feel hungry all the time, thus binging every once in a while on a package of cookies and then feeling awful about themselves.
Nuts can be the perfect snack to save you from those dieting blues. As they are chock-full of nutrients, just a handful of nuts as part of a balanced diet will keep your health in check.
Yes, they are full of nutrients, but aren’t they also full of fat?
This is what is called the Nut Paradox. For years, dieticians and weight loss programs have advised people to stay away from nuts due to their high-fat content and energy-dense qualities. However, studies show no significant differences in weight loss between people who did and didn’t eat nuts. Although nuts are high in fat, as part of a balanced diet, they did not actually cause more weight gain. Surprisingly, they may be effective in weight loss. An article published in 2014 by the American Society for Nutrition entitled “A Review of the Effects of Nuts on Appetite, food intake, metabolism, and body weight” sheds light on this Nut Paradox. Apparently, nuts contribute to a feeling of satiation, especially when eaten as a snack in between meals. This may be due to the fact that nuts need to be chewed well before swallowing, thus causing higher feelings of satisfaction. After snacking on nuts, people rate themselves as overall less hungry, and increasingly full following ingestion. Thus, they eat less between meals and eat smaller portions during meals. Therefore, dieting is maximized, while still gaining overall healthy nutrients.
Of all nuts, pecans have been cited as one of the best nuts for weight loss. One ounce of pecans has 196 calories, 20 grams of fat (of that 1.8 grams saturated fat, 11.6 grams monounsaturated fats, and 6.1 grams polyunsaturated fats), 10.4 grams of fiber, and 3 grams of protein. Pecans include numerous nutrients which contribute to overall good health, such as calcium, potassium, vitamin C, vitamin A, and B-complex vitamins. Thus, although being relatively high in fat, they are definitely worth every bite. Buy wholesale pecans and get more for your money as well.
Specifically, pecans have several properties which promote weight loss, such as high levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids, vitamin E, zinc, and magnesium.
Higher levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids are associated with a lower weight, a slimmer waist, and maintaining weight loss over time.
Increased levels of vitamin E are associated with lesser obesity. In addition, vitamin E joins forces with vitamin K to produce more red blood cells, which promotes more effective metabolism. Vitamin E is influential in strengthening muscles, helping turn fat into firm muscles.
Zinc has a crucial role in metabolizing sugar, thus causing lesser fat build-up.
Magnesium accelerates the process of turning glucose into energy. When this occurs, people have less sugar in their blood and more energy. There is an association between increased magnesium, quicker weight loss, and more effective metabolism which helps keep the weight off.
That being said, nuts, especially pecan nuts, will help you lose that weight and stick to that lower weight, when incorporated into a well-balanced diet. Buy fresh pecans and have a stash waiting for you in your pantry. Next time you get a snacking crave - go nuts for pecans.
