So you’re trucking along. You’re feeling good about your dietary discipline. You’ve cut out sugar, grains, most toxic foods. You’re eating only organic fruits and veggies. You’ve lost weight. You’re looking good; you’re feeling great.

But you get hungry. It IS within your intermittent fasting period, but it’s not meal time. What do you do?

NUTS!

That’s one of the first go-to snacks for the healthy eater. And you better believe it’s a WAY better option than cookies, crackers, cakes, candies or whatever else you’ll find lurking in the breakroom at work.

But it’s not that simple… it never is. So let’s get down to the nitty gritty about nuts.

The Good

Every type of nut is different, with different types or amounts of nutrients, different benefits and drawbacks, different flavors, etc. But in general, one ounce of mixed nuts contains:

• 5 grams of protein
• 16 grams of fat (almost entirely healthy fat)
• 6 grams of carbs, which is offset by 50% by…
• 3 grams of fiber
• 12% of your Vitamin E daily value
• 16% of your magnesium daily value
• 13% of your phosphorus daily value
• 23% of your copper daily value
• 26% of your manganese daily value
• 56% of your selenium daily value

Nuts are quite high in antioxidants. They are among the most readily-available high-antioxidant foods you can get. Walnuts have the most antioxidants of any nut, followed by almonds, then pecans. Cashews, not so much–but still good.

They will help lower cholesterol, triglycerides and have been shown to help you lose weight, DESPITE being a high-calorie food (proving yet again that weight loss isn’t really about calories). Pistachios have specifically been identified to really help in lowering triglycerides, where almonds, macadamia nuts, walnuts, pine nuts and hazelnuts are great at lowering bad cholesterol.

Nuts help lower blood sugar if used as a snack rather than carb or sugar-loaded foods. Plus, their antioxidant properties help lower inflammation. Pistachios in particular have been shown to decrease C-reactive protein, an inflammation marker associated with heart disease. Eating nuts also lowers interleukin 6, an inflammatory marker associated with immune system issues. Nuts also lower the amount of large LDL (bad cholesterol) molecules while keeping the same amount of small LDL (good cholesterol) molecules, which also lowers inflammation.

The beauty of this is that, as inflammation is at the root of so many chronic diseases, by lowering inflammation, nuts indirectly protect your from and help you deal with everything from heart disease to diabetes to neurodegenerative diseases (Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s), strokes, thyroid conditions and so much more.

All of these combined with the fact that nuts are sugar-free and quite low in carbs while being high in calories, good fats and proteins makes them an excellent snack.

The Bad

The first issue with nuts is how they are prepared. Most snack nuts are salted, and not with sea salt. They are salted with sodium-filled synthetic sodium chloride. While actual, real salt is high in minerals, antibacterial, antiviral and so much more, sodium chloride has a range of health drawbacks.

Furthermore, the nuts you generally see at the store are roasted. This isn’t really a dealbreaker (for me), but you should know that roasted nuts are lower in those awesome nutrients that help make nuts such a great snack, plus they way they are roasted usually adds a gram or so of bad fats. Raw nuts are simply better for you.

The Ugly

When you don’t buy organic, you get the same problems as if you don’t buy organic tomatoes. They’re covered in pesticides and herbicides that have been linked to cancer, chronic disease and just general human suffering. So buy organic, pure and simple.

The ugliest of uglies in the nut world are by far the peanuts–which are technically legumes! But as they are so totally intertwined with nuts in society and our food culture (plus their name is actually peaNUTS), we’re going to count them.

First of all, peanuts are generally harvested and then stored for quite a while (even many months) in warm, humid silos. During this time, peanuts develop a type of mold called aflatoxin. This is particularly dangerous for kids, and has been shown to lead to liver damage and liver cancer.

Aflatoxin grows on other food products as well, but peanuts are among the most dangerous individual foods in that regard.

Second, a lot of us get a major dose of peanuts through peanut butter, which has become just another of those processed foods full of hydrogenated oils, preservatives, additives, sugar and other nasty stuff.

Bottom line, give up on peanuts. They’re not worth it.

But nuts? A fantastic snack, as long as they are organic.