6 Nutrition-Packed Holiday Foods
We'd never tell you that you can't eat pecan pie (it's only once a year, after all), but adding more of these options can help avoid an I-can't-button-my-pants situation.
By Emma Haak
The Bowl of Nuts to Nibble On
Your Old Favorite:: Ones that are covered in sugar or oil-roasted
The Healthier Option: Raw or dry-roasted nuts where the only toppings (if any) are herbs or spices–and no, the cinnamon in cinnamon-sugar nuts does not count.
The Nutrients You Get: All nuts are good for you in moderate amounts (remember, they're high in calories), but you do get slightly different amounts of nutrients depending on the nut. Ounce for ounce, almonds offer the most protein, at 6 grams, followed closely by pistachios with 5.8 grams, and these two are also the highest-fiber nuts. For healthy unsaturated fats, go for walnuts (13.4 grams), but steer clear of Brazil nuts, which have the most saturated fat, at 4.3 grams per ounce. (Macadamia nuts are a little tricky, because while they're high in unsaturated fats, they're also high in the saturated kind.) Meanwhile, hazelnuts offer the most folate, too-low levels of which have been linked to depression.
Published 10/19/2016