It is a pretty broad question asking do almonds really work. It makes one wonder, are we referring to determining if they possess some health benefits, or do they work to satisfy some craving we may have. Let’s find out more as to why almonds seem to be so important to a lot of people.
Overview
There is every indication that almonds is an important food staple to many. What backs this up is the data that shows almonds has being one of the leading nut and food introductions globally in 2013. in fact they have been the leading nut since 2006. If food producers are putting such heavy emphasis on an ingredient such as this, then you can be assured that there is massive interest from the consumers of almond type products. To support this interest even further all you have to do is look at the data that Google provides for the number of searches that are done on the simple word “almond”, and with an average monthly online search of about 1,158,000 there is no doubt about the interest of this most amazing nut.
The Claim
It is no secret that many people are now becoming more naturally orientated when it comes to their food. They are adopting the concept that wholesome natural foods are far better for the overall health than fatty and processed foods. This line of thinking is no doubt contributing to the potential health factors that almonds are touted as being able to provide.
The Hype
The hype basically comes from those that are in favor of eating plain natural foods that include a whole gambit of nuts and not just the one we are talking about. When it comes to just what do almonds contain that are so good for us there is plenty of information about their components that comes from the experts. Overall they are loaded with vitamins and minerals. That in itself is a pretty general statement too, because so are a lot of other nuts. To break it down even further they are a source of about 12% of the protein we need on a daily basis, plus they give us a good amount of vitamin B and E, and contribute to our mineral needs concerning magnesium,calcium and potassium.
The Cost
Along with all these good factors about almonds is that in their simple natural form they are really inexpensive to buy. If you want to go one step further then you may want to pay a little more for the organic produced ones, just to lessen your chances of any chemical toxin residue that pesticides could create.
The Commitment
If you are going to add almonds to your daily diet in order to get some decent benefits from what they have to offer, then plan on consuming about an ounce a day. Now if you are not a nut lover you may be thinking that you could easily consume this amount if they happened to be chocolate covered almonds. You might be defeating your purpose here a little, but we will talk about this more a little later on.
Evaluation
Almost anything we consume that is generally considered to be a healthy type food comes with its own benefits by way of vitamins and minerals. The big factor here though is how much of these benefits do we destroy during the production stage and then the preparation for consumption stage? If you stick to just the plain almonds and specifically organic as we mentioned then you don’t have the worries of loss of benefits.
Final Almonds Review
We are convinced that the almonds do indeed contain all of the healthy compounds they are touted as having, but we wanted to look closer at some of these components and why we really need them. So beginning with the vitamins, what about vitamin E? This vitamin is beneficial for muscle health,prevention of sun damage,health heart and good for the brain. The best form of vitamin E is alpha-tocopherol and that’s the kind that almonds happen to possess. Vitamin B helps to convert food to energy. Almonds contain about 17% of what you need of this vitamin on a daily basis. This vitamin is also beneficial for your skin, hair, eyes and liver. Almonds are also touted as being good for cholesterol because of the monounsaturated fat content. This leaves us with magnesium, potassium and calcium which are good for various aspects of your bones. In addition to almonds having all these wonderful attributes each component works well with the us which is just as important as being part of the components. If you are thinking about going for the chocolate coated version simply because you can’t eat them any other way, at least try to find some that have a dark chocolate coating, and this is better for you than milk chocolate.
Our Recommendation
It would be safe to assume that the components that almonds possess are going to contribute to the way you feel, which should be an improvement. Or if you don’t want to have to focus on other food types that are going to give you the other nutrition you need to help you feel good you could always take a look at a product like Welltabs, which we talked about before. However, what we are really focusing on here with the almonds is the benefits that you can get from a simple but potent nut, in the most natural way. So our final conclusion is we are definitely going to give almonds a definite thumbs up!
