Chestnuts are type of not you rarely see or hear from any other time of year outside of Christmas and the holidays. Many of us have been surrounded by this food our entire lives yet never had the inclination to try it, or if we have it has been to nibble one or two here and there.
While chestnuts in most cases end up being nothing more than a holiday decoration, they do in fact pack a lot of nutritional value within them and can be regularly consumed as a part of a healthy diet.
Many of us struggle with finding nutritionally dense foods that we also enjoyed eating and this holiday nut maybe the answer we’ve been looking for all along. Here are some reasons why you should be eating more chestnuts, as they can improve our health in many different ways.
1. Rich in Antioxidants
Like many other sources of nuts out there, chestnuts are very rich in antioxidants. We’ve all heard about anti oxidants in how they are good for health however we don’t know how exactly these ingredients impact it.
Antioxidants are important to our health because they help to neutralize free radicals within the body, and these free radicals are the result of chemical process that occur within us. There are thousands if not millions of chemical reactions currently going on in our bodies at this very moment all of which result in some type of product, like a free radical.
The problem with free radicals is that they are highly attractive molecules and can disrupt other processes within the body and break apart other compounds. Essentially they can disrupt any process within the body, to which makes getting enough anti oxidants in your diet to combat this all the more important.
2. Heart Healthy
Chestnuts also heart healthy and this is mainly because of two reasons. As mentioned prior chestnuts are rich in antioxidants, and these anti oxidants help to reduce inflammation, which improves the functioning of our heart and cardiovascular system.
The second benefit the chestnuts bring to the cardiovascular system is that they are rich in minerals such as potassium, which itself plays an important role in the regulation of our blood pressure. Potassium is the mineral that helps to balance the electrolytes in our blood such as sodium which is well known for its ability to increase blood pressure.
3. Improves Cellular Functioning
While many of us know all about have certain nutrients can impact certain tissues within the body, what these nutrients to their cells themselves are of the utmost importance. One of the trace minerals that many of us forgot about and lack in our diet is one called manganese, which may also be important in maintaining own health as well.
The vast majority of this mineral along with other minerals in the body is stored in our bones, to and when we do not taking enough of this micronutrients from our diet our body makes up the difference by teaching them from our bones.
Due to this issue are obviously our bone health is going to be at risk and eating more chestnuts can help to resolve this problem. Including a serving of chess looked in your diet daily can help to improve your health, and this only requires you to eat about 10 nuts a day.
5. Improves Cognition
Another nutrient which many people are lacking in are the various B vitamins, which are essential to keeping our brain healthy and fighting off diseases related to the mind. These types of vitamins are predominately found in foods such as dark leafy green vegetables, nuts, seeds and other foods generally considered to be healthy, which many of us tend to avoid.
Not only are these the vitamins essential for the brain to work optimally, they also are powerful anti oxidants as well. Inflammation in the brain over long periods of time is believed to cause a whole host of degenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s and other related forms of dementia.
Are They Safe for Everyone?
Chestnuts are generally considered safe for everyone to eat, however like any other type of food out there is going to be a small risk of having an allergic reaction. Compared to other knots such as peanuts for example they do not affect as many people.
The only concern you should have as far as beating chestnuts though is that they do contain a good amount of carbohydrates per serving, so people who are diabetic or pre diabetic may not want to eat this food too often.
