While, being the “bread-winner” is synonymous with being a wage-earner for the family, how much thought do we give into exactly what type of bread we are winning? If I just had to give you a quick tip about grains, it would be “Switch To Brown“,a post that talks about whole-grains in general. But in this post I want to highlight an article I read recently that specifically caters to choosing wholesome yet tasty bread for your whole family and especially for kids who need a good amount of vitamins and minerals in their diet during their growing years.

The KeepKidsHealthy website has an article titled “White vs. Wheat Bread” that can be deemed a quick primer for helping you choose good quality bread from the myriad varieties at the supermarket. Kids can be especially difficult to deal with when it comes to eating, but did you know that from ages 2-6, they should eat 6 servings from the grain food group, while older children should eat 6-11 servings each day? Of course bread is not the only source of whole grains for them, but it’s an important source, since it is part of a wide variety of snacks, sandwiches and meals.

Most breads, whether whole-wheat or white, are usually comparable as far as total calories, fat and iron go. Most white breads these days are also well-fortified with the required daily values of vitamins and minerals. As the article goes on to describe, the biggest difference shows up in the amount of fiber in each type of bread.

In general, 100% whole wheat/whole grain breads have more fiber than white bread or other breads made with wheat flour, although some white breads, such as Iron Kids and Iron Kids crust-less bread, have almost as much fiber as many kinds of wheat bread.

For kids, fiber is a vital component of any meal because it not helps you feel full but also helps in passage of foods through the digestive system. For kids with constipation, whole-wheat breads can be extremely helpful.

Another important mineral for kids is calcium – vital for bone growth and strength. Milk-based white breads might sometime have more of this, but fortified whole wheat breads nowadays have an equal quantity as well. If milk or dairy products are not a big hit with your kids, bread can be that extra source of calcium.

So what should you look for next time you are in the bread-aisle? Here are a couple of pointers:

1. Protein: 2-3 g per serving (sometimes a serving might be just one slice – given the bigger size of bread these days)
2. Calcium: About 10-15% of Recommended Daily Allowance
3. Fiber: About 2-3 g per serving (this might just be the pivotal decision-maker when you are comparing different types or brands of bread).

As always remember to not only look for 100% Whole Wheat on the label . but also check the ingredients for terms like “100% Whole Wheat” or “100% Stoneground Whole Wheat”. If you see terms like “enriched wheat flour”, you might want to skip that brand if you are truly looking for the whole wheat variety.

Personally, I used to be a big fan of Arnold Double Fiber Bread but like I mentioned later in the comments I have now switched to the Ultimate-Grains Hearty Nutri-Bran bread from HS Bakery (unfortunately, their website is hopeless as far getting any useful information about its products goes). One slice has 100 calories, 2g of fat and best of all 5g of fiber and 5g of protein. The primary ingredients are water and coarse whole wheat flour and it is mildly sweetened (4g of sugar) with sugar and raisin paste (no artificial flavors or corn syrup).

If the kids in your home like whole-wheat bread, then there really should be no looking back at white. I have also heard of parents who use a neat trick to convince their kids that whole-wheat bread is better for them. At the supermarket they show their kids both packets and ask them to lift them. Typically the white bread loaf will be much lighter for the same volume and they can tell the kids “See? White bread is just filled with air! A big kid like you needs something more solid – like this wonderful brown color bread!”.

What bread will you choose for your family?

[tags]health, nutrition, whole grains, whole wheat bread[/tags]

]]> http://www.fitnessmantra.info/2007/06/29/how-to-choose-bread-for-your-family/feed/ 2 http://www.fitnessmantra.info/2007/06/08/12-powerfoods-to-center-your-diet-around/ http://www.fitnessmantra.info/2007/06/08/12-powerfoods-to-center-your-diet-around/#comments Sat, 09 Jun 2007 03:50:41 +0000 FitnessMantra http://www.fitnessmantra.info/2007/06/08/12-powerfoods-to-center-your-diet-around/

When people ask me when I was bitten by the fitness bug, I like to tell them the story of “How Fitness became my Mantra“. It’s always entertaining (even to me) to learn that a free audio book deal can make such a profound change in a person’s life (and make the lives of those around that person a living hell as he daily expounds the virtues of eating raw vegetables and banishing sugar!).

The Abs Diet

But in all seriousness, The Abs Diet was truly the inspiration for my embarking on my journey toward fitness. The food and exercise ideas contained within its pages are a treasure trove for anyone seeking to learn a hype-free way to successful weight-management. The name of the book is a little misleading (although I am sure it contributes to loads of sales!).

Now, no diet can promise to give you washboard abs but combine the foods mentioned in the book with the nicely illustrated exercises and you give yourself a great chance of having a defined mid-section – an almost guaranteed indicator of a person’s fitness level. The book also talks about things like “converting” fat to muscle which in reality can never happen because the two are made of different constituents. You really have to burn off fat with cardio exercises and pack on muscle with a combination of strength-training and protein-rich eating. But the book more than makes up for its few faults and its well worth the cost if only because of the detailed section on diet and the foods that it advises we all center our diets around. Meet …

The 12 Powerfoods

The book suggests that a large part of our diets should include foods from the set of 12 so-called power foods. Power 12 Foods: Never Go Hungry is the secret-spilling article on the Men’s Health website that details not only what these foods are, but also how you can include them in your daily meals. A basic understanding with the Abs Diet is that you will eat 6 times a day (3 major meals and 3 snacks – which is what I tend to do as well).

Though you can base entire meals and snacks around these foods, you don’t have to. But do follow these guidelines.

• Incorporate two or three of these foods into each of your three major meals and at least one of them into each of your three snacks.
• Diversify your food at every meal to get a combination of protein, carbohydrates, and fat.
• Make sure you sneak a little bit of protein into each snack.

An easy way to remember the 12 powerfoods is to remember the words ABS DIET POWER – the first letters of each of the powerfoods spell these words as you can see:

1. Almonds and Other Nuts
2. Beans and Other Legumes
3. Spinach and Other Green Vegetables
4. Dairy Products
5. Instant Oatmeal
6. Eggs
7. Turkey and Other Lean Meats
8. Peanut Butter
9. Olive Oil
10. Whole-Grain Breads and Cereals
11. Extra-Protein (Whey) Powder
12. Raspberries and Other Berries

While this is not a comprehensive list of all the good foods you can possibly consume, it is still pretty inclusive and I can unconditionally vouch for the veracity and potency of each and every one of these foods. In previous posts I have written about a majority of them including nuts (almonds and walnuts), green vegetables (broccoli), dairy (milk 1,2 and cottage cheese), oatmeal, peanut butter and whole grains (bread). It’s surprising how much my diet now revolves around all of these foods (well almost all – I am vegetarian so #7 is out, which is why I need a whole lot of #11 to make up the protein!)

What else can you ad to this list? Well, there’s flaxseed for one (along with other healthful seeds like sunflower seeds). And of course atleast 2-3 servings of fresh fruits (simply go with whatever is in season – this way you not only get a good variety year-round, you are also assured it is fresh and the cost is probably lower too). Any other super-foods you can think of that don’t fall into one of the 12 categories? Do comment about them.

Finally, incorporating these superfoods into your diet while always being conscious of your total calorie intake will certainly help you maintain an appropriate weight, but distributing that weight and ensuring you build lean muscle while losing fat requires – you guessed it – exercise! The Abs Diet Exercise Plan is a worthy complement to the superfood diet and an excellent place to start. It’s all part of the Abs Diet Plan.

I made a huge, life-altering change to my eating and exercise habits when I learned everything that you have read today. Are you now ready to make that big change?

[tags]health, nutrition, fitness, exercise, abs diet, powerfoods[/tags]

A while back when I wrote about the cost and benefit of eating healthful foods I began by saying “Eating fresh healthful food is always going to be more expensive than the mass produced, refined, processed, packaged foods.” and that is still the case for a majority of the Fitman Foods discussed on this site like almonds, walnuts or cottage cheese (especially when used as part of a daily diet).

But are there certain foods that are both affordable and healthful at the same time? Well Cybernoon certainly thinks so (via FitExpress). In an article titled “Affordable healthy food!“, eight healthful yet easy-on-the-wallet foods are discussed including beans, eggs and that oft-ignored whole-grain wonder, popcorn (as always rememer to air-pop it at home instead of dousing it in butter!)

Read the full article and make these part of your diet and watch your health score go up even as your grocery bills go down!
[tags]health, nutrition, food[/tags]

When you first take a look at the unassuming flaxseed it would not be surprising if you underestimated its potential value.

Dull-brown and most ordinary-looking, flaxseeds don’t have the charisma of a walnut or cashew, but grind it or extract its oil and that’s when its true colors literally show up.

One of the most fiber-rich sources known to man, flaxseed meal and oil have excellent calorific payload and are also extremely easy to include in our diets. The meal has a nutty texture to it and makes for great toppings, while the oil is an excellent soure of good unsaturated fat.

But enough of introductions – it’s time to get to the flax, er, facts. The following information is taken from the Bob’s Red Mill website, but you can use any brand of pure flaxseed meal:

Main Ingredients in a serving of Flaxseed Meal and their Health Benefits:

1. 4g of fiber (infact all carbohydrates in flaxseed come in the form of fiber!). This breaks up as 1.33 grams of Soluble Fiber and 2.67 grams of Insoluble Fiber. As I previously mentioned in my Oatmeal post, soluble fibers combine with fatty acids to form a kind of gel in your intestine releasing energy slowly from food making you feel full longer and also helps in lowering total and bad cholesterol. Insoluble fiber, on the other hand helps in moving food through the intestine and promotes regularity, while also maintaining a steady pH (acidity) in the intestines.
2. 2400 mg of Omega 3 Fatty Acids in the form of alpha linolenic acid (ALA). Omega-3s are essential fatty acids that have been shown to increase your good cholesterol (HDL) and decrease your bad cholesterol (LDL) and total cholesterol levels. Omega-3 fats help in preventing erratic heart rhythms and also makes your blood less likely to clot in arteries (a leading cause of heart-attacks). whfoods.org maintains detailed information about the benefits of Omega-3 fats, while Omega-3Info talks about the Role Essential Fatty Acids Play In Our Body.
3. 3g of protein: Essential building blocks of muscle.
4. Good quantity of lignans: Lignans are a class of phyto-estrogens which are anti-oxidants, and while many believe that the effects of anti-oxidants are sometimes over-rated, World’s Healthiest Foods reports that lignans have been shown to lessen a woman’s risk of developing cancer and can promote normal ovulation and extend the second, progesterone-dominant half of the cycle. It has also been shown to decrease insulin resistance, which, in turn, reduces bio-available estrogen, which also lessens breast cancer risk. And, as insulin resistance is an early warning sign for type 2 diabetes, flaxseed may also provide protection against this disease.

Easy ways to include flaxseed in our diets:

Since flaxseed meal has a nutty texture, it is quite easy to include in our daily diets. Here are some suggested ways:

1. Topped on yogurt or cottage cheese.
2. Sprinkled on salads or steamed vegetables.
3. Mixed with oatmeal and other cereals for that extra crunch!
4. Added to homemade muffin, cookie or bread recipes.
5. 2 tablespoons stirred with a glass of water.
6. Want more? Check out these delicious-sounding recipes!

Storing and using flaxseed meal:

1. Store in opaque packaging to protect nutrients against light.
2. Once opened keep refrigerated or frozen.
3. Do not cook as this might also destroy its nutrients.

Finally, a little bit of trivia:

What’s in a name? Well, when it comes to the scientific name of flaxseeds, the name says it all. Flaxseeds are known as Linum usitatissimum with its species name meaning “most useful”. That would definitely describe the versatility and nutritional value of this tiny little seed.

-Via World’s Healthiest Foods

So, how do you plan to include more of this natural wonder-food in your diet?

[tags]nutrition, flax, flaxseed, flaxseed meal, flaxseed oil[/tags]

The little green florets of broccoli look like a cauliflower that suddenly decided to go all Hulk on you – like it got all powerful one day and just filled up with energy and turned green! Maybe it’s trying to tell you something. Read on to know what …
Nutrition:

Here is the nutrition data for a single serving of broccoli (about 1.5 cups):

At first glance certain things jump straight out:

• 4g of cholesterol-fighting fiber
• 4g of muscle-building protein
• More Vitamin C than you need for 2 days
• A 5th of your Vitamin A needs
• And the best part: all this from just a 50 calorie power-packed serving with virtually no fat!

In addition, there is more good stuff here than meets the eye.

World’s Healthiest Foods reports that:

• Like other cruciferous vegetables, broccoli contains phytochemicals–sulforaphane and the indoles–with significant anti-cancer effects including the ability to reduce the size of tumors and also fight against breast and stomach cancers.
• Broccoli is rich in flavonoids which significantly reduce the risk of heart disease.
• Broccoli contains powerful phytochemical antioxidants in the carotenoid family called lutein and zeaxanthin, both of which are concentrated in large quantities in the lens of the eye. When 36,000 men in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study were monitored, those who ate broccoli more than twice a week had a 23% lower risk of cataracts compared to men who consumed this antioxidant-rich vegetable less than once a month.
• When it comes to building strong bones, broccoli’s got it all for less. One cup of cooked broccoli contains 74 mg of calcium, plus 123 mg of vitamin C, which significantly improves calcium’s absorption.
• Especially if you are pregnant, be sure to eat broccoli. A cup of broccoli supplies 94 mcg of folic acid, a B-vitamin essential for proper cellular division because it is necessary in DNA synthesis. Without folic acid, the fetus’ nervous system cells do not divide properly.

With this many superb benefits, it is no wonder that broccoli is called the King of Vegetables – pound for pound it is more nutritious and densely packed with vitamins and minerals than any other known vegetable (spinach and brussel sprouts included!).

Of course, no mention of broccoli would be complete without bringing to mind that famous New Yorker cartoon by anonymous cartoonist E.B.White:

(click to enlarge)

Mother: “It’s broccoli, dear.”
Daughter: “I say it’s spinach, and I say the hell with it.”

Further reading:

• Broccoli – The Crown Jewel of Nutrition
• World’s Healthiest Foods page for broccoli
• Nutrition Data page for broccoli

Broccoli can be steamed and then spiced with simple garnishes lke garlic and olive oil, or salt, pepper and herbs. Whichever way you prefer, make sure to include it in your diet regimen. It’s a real superfood, nay, a FitMan Food!

[tags]health, fitness, nutrition, broccoli[/tags]

When one thinks of whole grain, one tends to automatically think of whole wheat. This is not so surprising though, considering that Americans consume so much of it in products such as bread, bagels and almost all products made with the infamous “all-purpose” flour (cakes, muffins, pastries).

But there is more to whole grain than wheat alone. Popcorn is, unbelievably, an excellent source of whole grain (now if only people would stop drowning it in movie-theatre butter!) and so is brown rice. And then there is oatmeal: the venerable king of whole grains because of its almost perfect balance of the macro-nutrients carbs, proteins and fats.

Nutrition:

The following is the nutritional data for 1 serving (1/2 cup) of Quaker’s Quick Oats:

Right there is a potent combination of good fats, fiber and protein!

Benefits of eating oatmeal:

1. Oatmeal is a whole grain food that comes with all the goodness of 100% natural ingredients (rolled or steel-cut oats). It’s very important to choose natural oatmeal and not any of the sweetened or flavored oatmeals that often come with added sugars and other ingredients). Later I will give you quick tips to really spice up your breakfast!
2. 4g of fiber of which 2g are soluble and 2g are insoluble. So what is the difference? While both forms are not digested or absorbed as energy, they are useful to the digestive system. Soluble fibers combine with fatty acids to form a kind of gel in your intestine releasing energy slowly from food making you feel full longer and also helps in lowering total and bad cholesterol. Insoluble fiber, on the other hand helps in moving food through the intestine and promotes regularity, while also maintaining a steady pH (acidity) in the intestines.
3. 5g of protein further adding to the nutritional density.
4. Just 1g of natural sugar making oatmeal an extremely low glycemic food (one that is absorbed more slowly by the body giving you a uniform supply of energy)
5. Easy to make – after all you don’t want to hear about the world’s best food only to find out it takes an hour of careful preparation to enjoy! Quick Oatmeal takes a minute to prepare and less than 10 seconds to garnish!

How I eat my oatmeal:

Mix 1/2 cup of quick, natural instant oatmeal with 1/2 cup skim milk and about 10 almonds. Microwave on high for about a minute. Stir and microwave again for about 1/2 minute or as required. Toss a few strawberries or blueberries on top for a healthful, easy to prepare breakfast/snack!

Oatmeal is probably the best breakfast you can have since it replenishes so many of the nutrients your body has used up during the night while keeping you satiated for a longer period time (until your mid-morning snack, anyway!).

Add a bag to your pantry today.

[tags]health, fitness, nutrition, oatmeal, instant oatmeal[/tags]

Walk down the bread aisle in your local grocery and you are likely to be confronted by a plethora of nutrition labels with “High Fiber”, “Low Carb” and “Eat this or else …!” printed boldly on them.

The important thing to remember about any whole wheat product is this: since manufacturers are required to list ingredients in order of their quantity (weight) in the finished product, a whole wheat product will always have one of the following listed as the first ingredient: “whole grain”, “100% whole wheat”, “100% stone ground whole wheat” or something very similar.

If you see something like “unbleached wheat flour” or “unbromated wheat flour”, beware since these are just clever ways of saying “Foolish consumer, I have stripped the whole grain of all its goodness and made it highly refined”.

As for fiber, a good measure is that each slice should have atleast 2g of it. Also make sure the dough is not doused in High-Fructose Corn Syrup (you do know why it is harmful, don’t you?) before it’s baked.

The FitMan household uses Arnold Double Fiber 100% Whole Wheat Bread from their Whole Grain Classics Series.

Each slice has:

1. 90 calories with only 1.5 g of fat (no saturated or trans fats)
2. 4g of protein
3. Best of all: 5g of fiber! This means a 2-slice sandwich will make up 40% of your daily fiber needs!

This brand is easy to find in most large stores and tastes great with peanut butter! That’s a solid carb-protein-fiber combination that’s hard to beat!

Did you get your fill of whole grains today?

[tags]health, fitness, whole grain, whole wheat bread[/tags]

If the almond is the most nutritious of nuts out there, the walnut is a close second. Walnuts have one of the highest percentages of omega-3 fatty acids, which control triglyceride levels and also reduce bad cholesterol levels. Just one ounce of walnuts contains 2.5g of omega-3 fatty acids compared to less than 0.5g in other nuts.

Nutrition:

One ounce of walnuts (about 14 halves) consists of the following:

When you compare this with the nutrition information of almonds, you would first see that for the amount of fat, walnuts do indeed have less protein and fiber than almonds. But walnuts contain something that almonds have almost none of: yes, those omega-3 fatty acids.

Benefits of eating walnuts:

Walnuts are extremely nutrition-dense in nature and come packed with these benefits:

1. 2.5g of omega-3 fatty acids in each serving. Omega-3s are essential fatty acids that have been shown to increase your good cholesterol (HDL) and decrease your bad cholesterol (LDL) and total cholesterol levels. Omega-3 fats help in preventing erratic heart rhythms and also makes your blood less likely to clot in arteries (a leading cause of heart-attacks). whfoods.org maintains detailed information about the benefits of Omega-3 fats, while Omega-3Info talks about the Role Essential Fatty Acids Play In Our Body.
2. 4g of protein and 2g of fiber: These are good for maintaining muscle mass and also add to the fullness factor in foods.
3. Good natural source of bio-available melatonin: The hormone melatonin is secreted by the pineal gland is involved in sleep regulation. But it has also been shown to possess excess anti-oxiant properties. One serving of walnuts contains about 70 nanograms of melatonin. According to Russel J. Reiter, Ph.D., Professor of Neuroendocrinology at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, “Melatonin and omega-3s, both of which are in walnuts, starve cancers because they prevent the growth of cancer cells. When you take melatonin as a tablet, you are exclusively getting melatonin. I think the value of the walnut is the composite of what it contains.”
4. ellagic acid is another anti-oxidant found in walnuts that has anti-cancer properties. It prevents the formation of free-radicals and also prevents cancer-cells from replicating.

FDA endorsement:

In March of 2004, the Food and Drug Administration of U.S.A. announced that a Qualified Health Claim can appear on packaged walnuts stating that: “Supportive but not conclusive research shows that eating 1.5 oz of walnuts per day, as part of a low saturated fat and low cholesterol diet, and not resulting in increased caloric intake may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. See nutrition information for fat [and calorie] content.”

Resources:

1. Walnuts.org is the website of the California Walnut Commission that contains a lot of nutrition information about walnuts. They even offer a free Walnut Recipes Brochure.
2. World’s Healthiest Foods has a page with information about the benefits of walnuts.
3. About.com describes The Cholesterol Friendly Benefits of Walnuts.
4. NutritionData’s factsheet for walnuts (change the serving size to 1 ounce).

I love walnuts on my salads and like almonds, they can be crushed and sprinkled on yogurt or cottage cheese for a tasty (and crunchy!) snack.

Walnuts easily exceed the high expectations of Fitman Foods.

[tags]health, fitness, walnut, omega-3 fatty acids, cholesterol[/tags]

FitMan Foods have a common and easily discernable theme:

1. they are not excessively high in total calories per serving
2. they usually contain a good percentage of either protein, fiber or good-fats
3. they are rich in nutrients, (either vitamins and/or minerals)

Lowfat Cottage Cheese is one such wonderful Fitman Food. My own favorite is Breakstone’s 2% Milkfat Cottage Cheese and I prefer their snack pack variety because it is so convenient to plop a cup into my lunchbag each morning for a mid-morning snack.

Each 4-oz serving of lowfat (2%) cottage cheese contains:

• 90 calories
• just 2.5g of fat (1,5g sat),
• 15% of your daily calcium, and best of all …
• … 11 whopping grams of lean protein

Source: Kraft and Calorie-Count

It is nutritious, easy to include in your routine and topped with our favorite Fitman Food, almonds, it makes for a super-snack!

Since some people complain that it is not the best tasting of foods, Stumptuous has a whole page of recipes, so you have no excuses! Kraft’s page also lists other ways to eat cottage cheese

[tags] health, fitness, cottage cheese, protein[/tags]

Almonds are so good for you, they are my first entry in the Fitness Mantra Hall of Fame and I also declare them to be a Fitness Mantra (or FitMan, for short) Food. On this site I plan to discuss the healthy and unhealthy aspects of various types of foods and those that should have pride of place in you kitchen will be called FitMan Foods. You can be assured that only the most healthful of foods will qualify for this position (I am sorry Krispy Kreme, please step to the back of the line!)

Almonds are one of the best foods you can consume on a daily basis and have many healthful benefits which I’ll describe in this post.

Nutrition:

First consider the nutrition data of an ounce of almonds (from Fitness Mantra’s favorite site, NutritionData):

An ounce of almonds (about 20-25 almonds, depending on the size of the nut) makes for a wonderful snack and packs in 6g of protein and 3.3g of fiber. While nuts, in general, have a high fat content, the fat in almonds is of the monounsaturated variety (I will soon be writing in detail about fats, but for now, just remember that saturated(think: butter)=bad and monounsaturated(think: olive-oil)=good)

Benefits of eating almonds:

It is a nutritionally dense food (packs in more nutrients when compared by weight) with the following wonderful benefits:

1. 7.3 mg of Vitamin E per ounce: A great source of anti-oxidants (almost a third of your daily need in just this one serving!), almonds help neutralise free radicals (which are bad for the cells in your body).
2. 9.1 g of monounsaturated fats: These are heart-healthy fats that tend to lower your total and LDL(bad) cholesterol while increasing your HDL(good) cholesterol. In a clinical trial published in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation, men and women who ate one daily ounce of almonds for a month lowered their LDL cholesterol by 4.4 percent. Those who ate two daily ounces of almonds lowered their LDL cholesterol even more – by 9.4 percent – and maintained their weight. (via Almonds Are In).
3. Reduces risk of heart disease: A Harvard Nurses’ Health Study shows that women who consumed more than five ounces of nuts a week lowered their risk of heart disease by 35%.
4. Helps you lose weight: Eating almonds as part of a right-calorie diet (I hate using the term low-calorie diet, because you need the right number of calories for your body type and requirement), can significantly help you lose weight (as reported by International Journal of Obesity).
5. 6g of protein: Proteins are the buiding blocks of muscle, which in turn give your body a defined shape and also increase your metabolism so you burn calories even when you are not active. In addition, plant based sources of protein, come with an added side benefit that you cannot get from animal sources, and that is …
6. … Fiber (3.3 g of it): As I wrote in Quick Tip #2, a diet rich in fiber, helps in digesting your food and increasing regularity while at the same time controlling cholesterol.

I usually sprinkle almonds on my oatmeal, yogurt or cottage cheese and also use them as salad toppings. You can dry roast them to make them more crunchy but avoid the salted variety as they have a high sodium content.

More resources:

1. Almonds Are In is a great online resource that describes all the healthful benefits of almonds.
2. Men’s Health has a head to head comparison of nuts (no prizes for guessing the winner!) and also suggests easy ways to add more almonds to your diet.
3. GetYourE describes the basics of Vitamin E, of which almonds are a great source.
4. And finally, a link to NutritionData’s factsheet for almonds (change the serving size to 1 ounce).

Almonds are easily available, easily portable and easily one of the best foods for your body – a proud Hall-of-Famer. Make it part of your diet today!

[tags]health, fitness, almond, protein, fiber, vitamin e[/tags]