Nuts & Seeds

Lately, nuts and seeds are making too much noise for being superfoods. They want a more significant share of our plates. We are listening to them through weight-loss experts who are these days driving our eating habits. :)

I have to share my seed story from my childhood. As a senior citizen, when I say my childhood, it is way back in times. :P My mother never used to throw away seeds of melons ( both kharbooja and tarbooj). Since I always had huge kitchen garden in my maternal home, mom used to store seeds of sweet melons for next sowing season and other melon seeds were kept in water to ferment for 2-4 days and then washed and dried for eating. Watermelon seeds were not fermented. They were just washed and dried. I always used to have a handful of seeds while taking those leisurly walks and eating them with frantic speed. Yes, it indeed needs a certain skill to open the dried seed with front teeth, separate the small seed with twisting tongue. The next action was to throw back the seed between the molars and seed-cover out through the mouth. So that way, we used to work hard to get the goodness of seeds unlike today's times when one can get all peeled seeds from the store. 

We do come across innumerable sites which will tell us the advantages of nuts and seeds, so I am not going to delve in that. I will tell you some interesting facts about these. First, what is the difference between seeds and nuts?

Nuts have a hard outer shell that contains a dry fruit and one or two seeds. The shell does not separate when the fruit is ready to eat but must be practically pried off. That is why peeling off of orange and walnut differs. :)

Seeds are embryonic plants with a built in nutrient-rich seed coat. Some seeds need their outer husk removed prior to eating and others do not. If the outer husk is removed, it can usually be easily split by hand and removed. I did it with mouth while walking, I told you. :)                                                                                      (Reference)

Nuts and  seeds are packed with all the nutrients needed to grow a new plant. Nut and seeds bearing plants have been cultivated as early as 10,000 BC. 

Peanut is actually a legume but often classified and consumed as nut. The legumes have pods or shells that contain multiple fruits. Eg - peas and ground nut. 

We often find that some almonds are sweet while others taste bitter. The bitter ones are actually inedible antains a form of cyanide. 

Now this one is scary - Cashew shells contain urushiol. This irritating oil is in poison ivy. Heating inactivates urushiol, so roasted cashews are safe to eat. 

Peanut butter may help in losing weight. Researches in Purdue University tested various snacks like unsalted peanuts, other nuts and rice cakes etc. It was found that people who snacked on peanut butter or peanut felf hunger after 2.5 hrs while others after half an hour. Please do not attack peanut with vengeance for achieving your weightloss goals. Moderation is the key to good food.

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