Nuts About Healthy Eating

Today has been another successful day of my WISE experience!  Going along with my current week's theme of nuts and grains, I decided to make a loaf of banana-nut bread.  Banana bread is a quick bread whose main ingredient is mashed bananas.  This tasty treat did not become popular until around the 1930s, the same time that housewives accepted baking powder as a fast leavening ingredient for quick breads.  Banana nut bread is especially popular among the people of Australia.  Because I have always loved the taste (not the loads of fat) of banana nut bread, I decided to bake a healthier version that I found through my research.  This recipe has only 140 calories and 5 grams of fat, whereas the original banana nut bread has 430 calories and 16 grams of fat!  I used whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, sugar, canola oil, egg whites, bananas, skim milk, vanilla extract, and walnuts.  If you prefer pecans, those have relatively the same nutritional information as the walnuts.  After about an hour and a half, I was ready to eat this bread.  Not only is this version much healthier and diet-friendly, but it is also much tastier!

I wanted to make a banana bread that had nuts in it because nuts, when consumed in the right quantities, have many nutritional benefits.  They have an excellent source of protein, minerals, and good fats that have been proven to help strengthen the heart.  By eating 1.5 ounces per day of nuts, one can reduce the risk of heart disease.  According to my research, the six healthiest nuts include: walnuts, almonds, cashews, pecans, Brazil nuts, and Macadamia nuts.  Of all that were listed, cashews contain the least amount of fat.  By eating a variety of nuts, one can receive all of the benefits that nuts have to offer.  After researching for hours about the benefits of nuts, I realized that this high-calorie snack has many benefits, and by eating the right amount, it won't hinder my weight loss.

RANDOM FACT: Surprisingly, a peanut is not actually a nut.  It is a legume!