A HANDFUL OF NUTS

Eating well is an important part of good health. Like all good things in life, this requires a little bit of effort, patience, and work on our part. Which means rather than grabbing a bag of chips on the way home from work, actually waiting until we get home and taking the time to cook something.

However, life can be busy, and there are some healthy short-cuts. One of these is eating a handful of certain nuts a day. In traditional Chinese medicine dietary therapy, they are seen an deeply nourishing and containing lubricating oils.

The undoubted King of Nuts is the humble walnut – often when certain foods are good for one person, they might not be for another, but this is pretty healthy for everybody. It is even considered to boost sexual energy! The almond is the second most valued, and this has the added benefit in western medicine terms of being an excellent non-dairy source of calcium.

Whilst not considered especially beneficial in Chinese dietary therapy, brazil nuts are very good from a western bio-medical perspective for people in the UK. This is because the soil in this country is very low in selinium, and five brazil nuts a day can provide sufficient amount of this mineral.

Seeds too are seen as deeply nourishing, and of all these, the sesame seed is the best (ideally not on a burger bun), even moreso if they have their skin on.

As with all things, balance is essential, and nuts should not be over-consumed, because their oily nature will cause blockages. A small handful a day is just right.