Hi, are we supposed to eat 30g of nuts and 30g of pumpkin seeds a day
or 30g total?
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I hear conflicing advices. Dr. Greger, for example says 30g total but seems like American Heart Association recommends 30g of pumpkin seeds in addition to everything else.
It’s kinda personal preference and it depends on what macros, micros and calories you’re targeting. If you’re eating so many nuts and seeds that you’re not getting enough protein or vitamins from fruit/veg, or you’re consuming too many overall calories, then you may want to scale back a bit. But it’s best to look at the whole picture of your diet and decide what’s working for you and what isn’t.
This comment has no evidence based sources, however, in a subject at university (Human Nutritional Bio-chemistry), our lecturer mentioned that whatever fits safely on 3 of your fingers while your palm faces down is the requirement of nuts and seeds consumption for an individual. I don’t know why, but this always stuck with me. I’ve measured it and mine comes to 33g. Weird.
Well, on my tin of almonds it says a serving size is 1 oz/28g/170 calories. So no, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to have 60g of nuts and seeds each day. They tend to be very nutrient and energy dense. Nutrient diversity is important too.
Michel greger is a clown.
But that aside. What benefit are you trying to achieve? If the answer is heart health it’s in the wrong place since your going to want omega from animal foods for that. Nuts and seeds are typically higher in omega 6 and the omega they have is useless to us for the purpose of brain and heart health.
If you’re looking for micronutrients I’ve yet to see people digest seeds well without it showing up in their stool… so there’s that. But nuts are pretty good for micronutrients, especially walnuts and Brazil (should only consume one or two are a given day).
Rather than focusing on something so specific and narrow. Just focus on having a quality whole foods diet with balance of animal and plant nutrients from all main groups. Easy to hit any and all nutrient goals.