Can you tell me the health benefits of almonds?

Almond is a unique package of nutrients which are vital to your health. It is good to use it everyday.

The numerous health benefits of almond include:

• Helps to reduce the risk of heart disease
• Helps to bring down cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol
• Helps to reduce the risk of diabetes
• Helps to rejuvenate the skin. Almond paste is good to prevent wrinkles and dry skin
• Provides high quality proteins to vegetarians
• Helps to build muscles
• Helps your nervous system
• Helps your digestive system
• Can reduce the risk of cancer
• It is a very good food during weight reduction
• It is believed to improve memory
• Almond milk is a good substitute if you have cow milk allergy
• It is rich in iron and is a good food to fight against anemia
• It is a good laxative
• It is a good food to pregnant woman

We can say that almond is a complete food.

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.

What are the natural poisons of plant food?

Some plant food has natural poisons and they include:

Potato: The green part in potato contains solanine, a nerve toxin. In high concentration the symptoms are vomiting, diarrhoea, headaches and even paralysis of the central nervous system.

Green beans: The poison in raw green beans is called lectin phytohaemagglutinin. Ten minutes boiling degrades this toxic component.

Note: Sprouts of pulses are rich in haemagglutin and should not be eaten too much. Haemagglutin is a substance which causes red blood cells to clump together.

Beetroot and Asparagus: The natural poison in these vegetables is saponin. If it is injected, like all soaps, it damages the blood cells and is thus highly toxic. But it is the property of the whole molecule, but on oral intake, hydrolysis readily occurs in the mouth, splitting it into its sugar moiety and sapogenin and it is quite safe. Now you know why we have to grind the meal 32 times in our mouth.

Lakritz: Lakritz, licorice contains glycyrrhizin which metabolizes in our body to glycyrrhizin acid. It changes the mineral household and causes the problems of high blood pressure, water collection in the legs and muscle weakness. Healthy persons can eat a maximum of 50g and children and pregnant women can eat much lower than this.

Bitter almond: Its natural poison is amygdaline. It can be broken down into the poisonous substance hydrocyanic acid (cyanide).