Everything You Need To Know About The Best Nut Butters:
What is Nut Butter?
Have you noticed lately that grocery stores have increased the number and variety of different types of nut butters they offer? Nut butters have become popular alternatives for people with peanut allergies, and also offer a variety of flavors for gourmet delights. Nut butters are simply nuts ground into a spreadable paste, usually with a little salt added for flavor. True nut butters are made from tree nuts such as almonds, pecans or walnuts. Other “nut butters” may not be made from nuts at all, and might be made from sunflower seeds or roasted soy nuts, a legume. Keep in mind that peanuts are also legumes.
How do you know which nut butter is best?
Deciding which ones are the best types of nut butter depends on what you are looking for. If you are looking for a good alternative to peanut butter for allergy reasons, in my opinion, roasted soy nut butter is the closest in taste. It also works well in most peanut butter recipes.
If you’re looking to add new flavors to your diet, then you might want to experiment by trying the many nut butter varieties on the market and decide which ones you enjoy the most. Each nut provides different flavor profiles, just like nuts do, and each brand will also differ slightly. But, if you’re looking to add specific nutrients to your diet, then look no further than the nutrient content of the nut itself.
Nut Butter Nutrition:
Nuts provide protein and are a rich source of monounsaturated heart-healthy fats, which can lower bad cholesterol and even reduce heart disease risk. Most nuts are low in saturated fats. Nuts and nut butters provide satiety to keep you feeling full longer; this is how nut butters can actually help lead to weight loss when eaten in moderation. Determining the healthiest types of nut butter is a bit tricky though, because all nut butters provide important nutrients such as these:
- Almond butter provides vitamin E, magnesium, calcium and folate.
- The benefits of cashew butter – it’s an excellent source of copper and magnesium.
- The benefits of pistachio butter – it’s rich in antioxidants such as lutein and zeaxanthin, both important for eye health.
- Hazelnut butter is rich in monounsaturated fats and an excellent source of vitamin E, copper and manganese. Hazelnuts are combined with chocolate in Nutella, a popular spread for toast in many countries.
- Pecan Butter is rich in antioxidants and heart-healthy monounsaturated fats.
- Macadamia butter rich in monounsaturated fat and is an excellent source of manganese, an important antioxidant for cellular health.
If your local grocery store doesn’t stock a huge variety of nut butters, you’ll easily find the most popular nut butters online. So now that you know a little more about nuts butters, it’s time to get nutty, and go out and try some different types of nut butter to see which ones you like best.
