What are the nutrients present in almonds? How is it useful in weight reduction?

Almond is a complete food with vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats, carbohydrates and many other vital nutrients. It is an important food for our health.

The nutrients in 100g almonds include:

• Water – 5.7 g
• Protein – 18.7 g
• Fat – 54.1 g, more than 50% ins monounsaturated fats
• Carbohydrates – 9.0 g
• Fibre – 9.8 g
• Minerals – 2.7 g – sodium 25 - 40 mg, potassium 835 mg, magnesium 170 mg, calcium 250 mg, iron 4000 micro g, copper 850 micro g, zinc 2000 micro g, selenium 4 micro g, iodide 2 micro g.
• Vitamins - vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, nicotine amide, pantothenic acid, biotin, folic acid, vitamin C, vitamin E
• Purine – 30 mg

Almond plays an important role in diet plans for weight reduction. It is low in carbohydrates, has many of the vitamins and the minerals. It is rich in fibre and as a plant food no cholesterol.

100 g almond has 598 calories. During weight reduction I advise this to Stop the hunger at any time of the day. 10 to 20 g is enough to stop your hunger. It is only 60 to 120 calories. On the other hand, 100 g chips have nearly 300 calories and you feel also quickly hungry. The fibres play a vital role here for this. It has only 9% carbohydrates and this makes it also an ideal food for persons who have diabetes.

In the weight reduction it is easier to select the right food if you have enough knowledge about different foods.

My husband told me that his doctor advised him to drink now and then Brandy. It is good for his health. Is it possible?

This is not possible. Your husband is not telling the truth.

No doctor in this world will advise somebody to take alcohol. The doctors know well that alcohol in small quantities is good and in excess bad for our health.

Alcohol can make one an addict. There are hundreds of millions of addicts in our world. They not only destroy them but also their whole family.

The calories what we take from alcohol is only empty calories and alcohol is not necessary for our metabolism.

Even the good red wine in small quantity is also not recommended by the doctors. They know well that from one glass it can become 3 and after that one bottle or more.

Talk to your husband and explain him everything. After that he has to decide.

You say counting calories is not correct, why?

I am an analytical chemist who understands a lot about these estimations in food industry or in environment or in the medicine or anywhere. There is nobody to control all these because most of the national nutrition associations work closely with the food industry.

I furnish you some of the values which give you some important information. Potatoes had in 1978, 87 calories/100g, but it was 68 calories in 1990, carrots 1978, 35 calories and in 1990 only 24. Ragi, in 1978, 240 calories and in 1990 only 194 and avocado, 240 in 1978 and in 1990, 205 calories, if we measure now it may be also different.

It can be because of modern analytical methods or the allowed fluctuations in the measurements. With standard deviations and variation coefficients the allowed ranges are measured where 72 is equal to 98 or vice versa.

There are several other factors which influence the calorie valus. How ripe are the vegetables or fruits during harvest. The bananas are not even half ripe when they are harvested in South America. In Europe we add acetylene so that it ripes in the lorry with the necessary temperature. It is different if the lorry has to travel 200 or 800 km.

Think of our raw mangos and the hot stone or calcium carbide.

Moreover carbohydrates mean simple sugar to very complecated starch molecules with numerous sugar molecules. Till date there are no satisfactory methods to estimate all. In food, protein and fat are estimated and from that the carbohydrate values are calculated.

Another big unknown factor is what is happening in our stomach and intestine. Not verything are digested or absorbed to blood. The calories which are coming out must also be measured. This could be never right because the bacteria in our intestine system also consumes or destroys.

Counting calories can make one desperate because what you count is always not correct. I knew many who had permanent stress counting their unending calories and at the end put on more weight before.

Consider the amount and it is easy to calculate and the success is almost pre-planned.

You say counting calories is not correct, why?

I am an analytical chemist who understands a lot about these estimations in food industry or in environment or in the medicine or anywhere. There is nobody to control all these because most of the national nutrition associations work closely with the food industry.

I furnish you some of the values which give you some important information. Potatoes had in 1978, 87 calories/100g, but it was 68 calories in 1990, carrots 1978, 35 calories and in 1990 only 24. Ragi, in 1978, 240 calories and in 1990 only 194 and avocado, 240 in 1978 and in 1990, 205 calories, if we measure now it may be also different. It can be because of modern analytical methods or the allowed fluctuations in the measurements. Counting calories can make one desperate because what you count is always not correct. Consider the amount and it is easy to calculate and the success is almost pre-planned.

When I buy some processed food I found a lot of information in the label, but what are the important ones for me?

The calories present in that food, fat, sugar and salt content are important. Moreover, information about the chemicals as additives or colouring agents and the nature of the food, whether it is radiated or genetically manipulated.

All other matters are only advertisement for the industry. Many western countries try to make this a law, the lobbyists are working against this in many countries, but to our surprise Great Britain has this law as a traffic light system, green is good, yellow, not very good and red may be a colour of love but it is the worst. If we can achieve this it is easy for you to avoid all these bad foods for our health, no wonder the food industry is against this. Only the knowledge and thus avoiding these foods has a deciding effect on the industries because only the unsold products make them to change their policy and products.

Is it possible to estimate the calories from the cooked food in my home?

It is possible to estimate the calories, but it is time consuming, and expensive and further the results are very inaccurate.
I am against calories counting and it makes you only mad. Many food ingredients are mixed in different proportions in our food and so it is also very difficult to calculate the calories of a food from the individual food calories chart.

Watch the amount of food, the variety of food and by doing so you can find out the optimum for you and your family. Consult a good dietician and it helps a lot to understand several things about our foods.

You are that what you eat.

Could you tell me the calories of vadai, idli and dosai?

If somebody gives these values they are not serious.
This is the most difficult question for me, I do not know in which ratio they mixed rice and urid dhal. There is also no standard weight for this and moreover how much oil or ghee is present in vadai or dosai is also not known.

I am sorry I do not want to give the amount of calories. We must be careful with the amount of food what we take, but I am against of counting calories and I have obtained good results without counting them.