Did You Know that Dried Fruit and Nuts can Help You Lose Weight?
Eating dried fruit and nuts is a great way to balance your diet and get a good daily dose of vitamins, protein, and nutrients.
Although they’re small they’re full of beneficial properties for your body.
One of the main characteristics of nuts is that they contain less than 50% water. However, that doesn’t keep them from being filled with vitamins and minerals that will improve your body’s overall function.
Among the components of dried fruit and nuts, you’ll find:
- Vitamin B
- Folic acid
- Potassium
- Iron
- Fiber
- Copper
- Zinc
- Vitamin E
- Calcium
- Magnesium
There are two types of foods we’re talking about today: nuts and dried fruit.
- Nuts have a shell, or hull, like pistachios.
- Dried fruit includes foods like raisins and prunes.
How do these foods help you lose weight?
- Since they contain a lot of fiber, these foods help you prevent or alleviate constipation while improving your digestion and helping you eliminate harmful waste.
- They also help care for your bones. Thanks to their high calcium content, they keep your bones strong and in good health while preventing diseases like osteoporosis.
- In addition, you’ll have a younger and healthier appearance thanks to the amount of antioxidants they contain. This helps delay the aging process and the onset of wrinkles.
You should be sure to consume dried fruits and nuts without added salt or sugar. Otherwise, they lose their benefits and can cause you to gain weight.
In the case of excess salt, it causes you to consume more fluids and will overwork your kidneys.
Next, we’ll take a look at six foods in this category that will help you maintain the proper functioning of your body and lose weight.
See also: How to fight osteoporosis
Walnuts
Walnuts are a type of nut that has a white nut surrounded by a hard, round, and thick shell.
Eating walnuts can help you reduce the amount of fat that builds up around the abdomen. In addition to reducing your appetite, they also contain minimal carbohydrates.
Pistachios
Pistachios are a purple nut that has green pulp. These nuts are covered by a hard shell that is split in half, and relatively easy to open.
Pistachios are metabolized completely by the body, which results in a low caloric intake. They’re also great for improving your eyesight and helping you to have healthy, strong teeth.
Almonds
These nuts contain healthy fats that alleviate hunger cravings and help you watch your weight. In addition, almonds improve digestion and are beneficial for preventing high cholesterol levels and heart problems.
Sunflower seeds
This seed has a white pulp surrounded by a black shell with white stripes. It comes from the sunflower.
Just like most nuts, sunflower seeds contain large quantities of vitamins and healthy fats that purify and cleanse your body.
When consumed in the correct amounts, sunflower seeds provide plenty of omega-3, 6, and 9 fatty acids that improve your body’s overall function and stimulate fat loss.
Prunes
Thanks to its many properties, prunes improve your metabolism and cleanse the body. Naturally, this helps you avoid problems with constipation and fat build up.
We recommend you read: Prunes to prevent bone mass loss
Dates
Finally, we have dates. Dates come from the date palm tree. They’re an oval shaped-fruit with a color that varies between red and yellow. As you may know, eating dates gives you a nutritious dose of fiber.
Dates not only help satisfy hunger and control your weight, however. They also improve brain activity.
In addition, dates are a natural remedy for fighting allergy and anemia problems.
Avoid consuming too many dried fruits and nuts
As with most other types of food, it’s important to avoid excess and to know how much you should consume.
That’s why it’s best to talk with a nutrition specialist as a guide. Every person’s body is different, so it’s important to find out what level of intake is right for you.
When buying dried fruit and nuts, be sure they are ripe and that the shell (if there is one) looks normal. Otherwise, they could contain fungi or mold (this is the case if they look greenish on the outside).
Some of the more common risks of consuming too many dried fruit and nuts are:
- Toxicity from eating immature fruits
- Allergic reactions
- Diarrhea
- Kidney stones
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
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