Nuts, also known as shell fruits, are mostly cotyledons or endosperm of plant seeds, which have high nutritional value. Time magazine in the United States once rated it as one of the 10 nutritious foods of modern people. Nuts are generally divided into two categories: first, tree nuts, including almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, walnuts, pine nuts, chestnuts, ginkgo (ginkgo), pistachios, macadamia nuts, etc. The second is seeds, including peanuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and watermelon seeds. Nuts contain protein 36.0%, fat 58.8%, carbohydrate 72.6%, vitamins (vitamins B and E, etc.), trace elements (phosphorus, calcium, zinc and iron) and dietary fiber. In addition, it also contains monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids, including linolenic acid, linoleic acid and other essential fatty acids. The benefits of nuts to human health are mainly shown in the following aspects: 1. Scavenging free radicals. Free radicals are very active and will react with cell tissues and DNA in the human body, resulting in toxicity and damage. Studies have shown that some nut foods, such as sunflower seeds, have strong ability to scavenge free radicals, and their effects can be compared with those of strawberries and spinach. 2. Reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes in women. Researchers from the Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, Harvard University conducted a follow-up survey on 84,000 women aged 34-59 in 1 1 countries for 16 years. The results showed that eating more nuts would significantly reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. They believe that nuts are rich in unsaturated fats and other nutrients, which help to improve the balance between blood sugar and insulin. 3. Reduce the rate of sudden cardiac death. Because some components in nuts have antiarrhythmic effects, eating nuts is obviously related to reducing sudden cardiac death after controlling the known heart risk factors and making a reasonable diet. Compared with people who seldom or never eat nuts, people who eat nuts twice or more a week have lower risk of sudden cardiac death and death from coronary heart disease. 4. Adjust blood lipids. In 2002, Professor Xiao Ying from peking university health science center and others took 85 patients with hyperlipidemia as subjects, and gave them 75 grams of American almond every day for 4 weeks, and observed their blood lipids. The results showed that the serum total cholesterol and apolipoprotein B decreased significantly and apolipoprotein A 1 increased significantly after taking almond. It shows that American almond rich in monounsaturated fatty acids has a good regulatory effect on blood lipid and apolipoprotein levels in patients with hyperlipidemia. 5. Improve your eyesight. It is found that chewing intensity plays a certain role in improving vision, and eating more nuts can improve vision. The ciliary muscle of the eye can adjust the lens of the eyeball, and the adjustment function of the ciliary muscle depends on the muscle strength of the face, and the enhancement of the muscle strength of the face benefits from the chewing intensity. Modern people's food is softening day by day, and little or no chewing is needed when eating, which weakens facial muscle strength, reduces the adjustment function of ciliary muscle to eyeball lens, and easily reduces vision. Therefore, to improve your eyesight, you should eat more hard food and stick to chewing food fully for a long time. 6. Brain tonic. Brain cells are made up of 60% unsaturated fatty acids and 35% protein. Therefore, for the development of the brain, the first nutrient needed is unsaturated fatty acids. Nut food contains a lot of unsaturated fatty acids, high-quality protein of 15%~20% and more than a dozen important amino acids, which are the main components of brain cells. Nuts are also rich in vitamins B 1, B2, B6, vitamin E, calcium, phosphorus, iron and zinc, which are beneficial to brain nerve cells. Therefore, eating nuts is very beneficial to improve brain nutrition, especially suitable for pregnant women and children.