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The Best Nut

Which type of nut has the highest antioxidant content?

October 24, 2010 |
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Supplementary Info

The Best Nut, 4.9 out of 5 based on 7 ratings

Sources Cited

U.S. Department of Agriculture. Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) of Selected Foods—2007. November 2007.

Acknowledgements

Transcript

Five rounds left; there’s still a chance to win Let’s get nutty. Ten different types. Pecans are the chart topper followed by walnuts, the healthiest nuts on the planet. First off, what’s this one at the end. It’ not quite in iceberg lettuce land but it should be embarrassed to call itself a nut. Which is it?

Of the remaining eight which is the least healthy? How many say almonds suck??? Brazil nuts??? Who says cashews??? Hazelnuts??? Macadamia nuts??? Peanuts??? Pinenuts??? And finally Pistachios??? And the winning loser nut is pine nuts.

So pecans and walnuts up here; pine nuts down here. I would have guessed almonds would have been three, but no, #5. So which are these? You pick a nut and if it’s either number 3 or 4 you get to stay in the game. So which is healthiest? Brazil nuts? Cashews? Hazelnuts? Macadamias? Peanuts? And Pistachios?

If you said peanuts, you’re wrong. If you said cashews you’re even wronger. Not macadamias or Brazil nuts. The top five healthiest nuts are pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts—also called filberts, pistachios, and almonds. Nuts are so packed with antioxidants they’re adding nut powders to meat to keep it from spoiling longer.

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Dianne Moore.

To help out on the site please email volunteer@nutritionfacts.org

Dr. Michael Greger

Doctor's Note

Please feel free to post any ask-the-doctor type questions here in the comments section and I’d be happy to try to answer them. And check out the other videos on nuts. Also, there are 1,449 other subjects covered in the rest of my videos--please feel free to explore them as well!

For some context, please check out my associated blog post: The Best Foods: test your nutrition knowledge and Amla: Indian gooseberries vs. cancer, diabetes, and cholesterol

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/mgreger/ Michael Greger M.D.

    Please feel free to post any ask-the-doctor type questions here in the comments section and I’d be happy to try to answer them. And check out the other videos on nuts. Also, there are 1,449 other subjects covered in the rest of my videos–please feel free to explore them as well!

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/BenjaminStone/ Benjamin Stone

    Let’s not lose sight of other measures for nut health. Macadamia nuts are the only nuts that are not offensively high in omega 6 fats. For those who value maintaining a healthy ratio of n3:n6, one must eat more macadamia nuts to help keep their overall exposure to omega 6 down.

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/toxins/ Toxins

    What is ranking them as “best”? According to Joel Fuhrman’s ANDI’s score walnuts are ranked lower than almonds

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/toxins/ Toxins

    What is ranking them as “best”? According to Joel Fuhrman’s ANDI’s score walnuts are ranked lower than almonds

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/desavov/ desavov

    Why “best” is always calculated by antioxidant content?

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/mrauch/ mrauch

    I would love to learn about fumigant pasteurization of almonds. Do you have any information on the health effects of PPO and how to avoid it? Do organic almonds use this process?

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/katiemgibbs/ katiemgibbs

    Is it OK to roast nuts at home? I’ve heard that roasting them can damage their healthy fats and reduce their nutritional value. Is this true? Is it OK to eat toasted nuts or should they be completely avoided?

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/mercman40/ mercman40

    How about Almond Milk?
    Been drinking as replacement for cow milk, love the taste, etc. However, I do buy the Vanilla sweetened flavor…is that bad?
    Am I taking away from the good of it all?

    • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/mgreger/ Michael Greger M.D.

      Almond milk is certainly superior to calf’s milk, if only because of the lack of saturated animal fat, cholesterol, and hormones (see, for example, my videos Acne & Cancer Connection and Trans Fat, Saturated Fat, and Cholesterol: Tolerable Upper Intake of Zero), but is unflavored, unsweetened almond milk preferable to sweetened vanilla? In general, I’m in favor of cutting down on intake of empty calories whenever possible. We get only about 2,000 in the calorie bank every day–why not try to make them count? So almond milk versus almond milk with added sugar is a no-brainer decision for me, but I guess it depends on what you’re using it for. If the only way you would drink green tea is with the sweetened variety, then overall it would be healthier for you to stick with the added sugar (though your taste buds would probably adapt to the unsweetened variety, or you could try adding a harmless noncaloric sweetener such as erythritol (see A Harmless Artificial Sweetener). The vanilla question is interesting, though. Given its popularity, I was surprised there wasn’t more science published on the health effects of vanilla orchid fruit phytonutrients. There are two in vitro studies that suggest vanillin, one of the many aromatic compounds in vanilla, may be protective against colorectal and cervical cancer, but no clinical or epidemiological studies have been published to my knowledge. There was also a study showing that vanilla extract may interfere with bacterial communication, concluding vanilla “might promote human health by…preventing bacterial pathogenesis.”

      The most unusual vanilla study may be one published out of Germany in 1999. Researchers wanted to know if our olfactory memory goes back even further than our verbal memory. Do we subconsciously remember tastes and smells from our infancy before we could even put them into words? They realized that there was a time certain German infant formulas were flavored with vanilla, so they challenged a group of adults with a vanilla-containing food. But they couldn’t just use your typical vanilla flavored confection because it could introduce too many other new variables. They had to choose something that no one would have ever associated with vanilla. So they concocted… vanilla-flavored ketchup! And guess what? Two-thirds of those bottle fed with vanilla as infants preferred the vanilla ketchup, whereas two thirds of the rest were like “blech!” and chose the regular ketchup. The moral of the story is that perhaps if breastfeeding women eat lots of healthy foods, their broccoli-flavored breast milk might get remembered years down the road.

    • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/thea/ Thea

      to mercman40 re: sweetened vanilla almond milk

      I thought I would share that of all the various “milks” out there, almond milk is also my favorite. I have found several brands that have vanilla added without the extra sweetener. For me, that extra added hint of sweet, without actual extra sugar, is just perfect for all my milk needs.

      Just thought you might be interested in knowing that there is an in-between option. You can get one with vanilla that does not have added sugar. Maybe you would like it???

  • http://nutritionfacts.org/members/thea/ Thea

    oops. Forgot to click “notify me of follow up comments”. That would be another great fix for this site. Please make that box be the default. Who posts a comment and then doesn’t want to know responses?

  • Michael Greger M.D.

    For some context, please check out my associated blog post The Best Foods: Test Your Nutrition Knowledge!

    • Valnaples

      Have tried you link to the “Test Your Nutrition Knowledge”…keep getting white-paged…can you please verify? Thank you.

      • Valnaples

        “your link”

  • Joyce

    If I buy bags of mixed nuts, already shelled, would they be treat in anyway to keep fresh and loose nutrients?

  • http://www.facebook.com/eugene.pevzner Eugene Pevzner

    don’t we want to eat vegetables for their antioxidant scores instead of nuts?Nuts we should eat for their beneficial fats? I mean in your opinion what’s the best thing about nuts?

    • Toxins

      Nuts provide fiber, as well as antioxidants, similarly to vegetables, except that nuts are a much denser source of calories. The only 2 fats we need are omega 3 and omega 6. Considering that the current issue is that we consume too much omega 6, we should try to eat the omega 3 rich nuts, that being walnuts. http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/nut-and-seed-products/3138/2

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