Health Nut Q&A: Carbs in Nuts

Our Health Nut and Registered Dietitian, Molly Morgan, answers our customers’ most pressing health and nutrition questions!

If you’d like Molly to answer one of your questions in a future blog post, please email your question to health@nuts.com. If we feature your question in The Nutty Scoop, we will also send you a pound of your favorite Nuts.com product.

 

I am diabetic (insulin dependent).  Which nuts are safe and good for me to eat and in what quantity?

In moderation, any nuts can be safe for you to consume as an insulin dependent diabetic as long as you are properly accounting for the carbohydrate content of the nuts that you are eating. Below is a chart of the carbohydrate count for a one ounce serving of various nuts.  One small handful is about an ounce of nuts.

Brazil nuts are the winner if you are looking for nuts with lower carbohydrate content.  Although cashews, which have four times as many carbohydrates as brazil nuts, still only have about 8 grams of carbohydrates per ounce.

Two key points to consider:

  1. Measure the amount of nuts you are consuming and place them in a serving bowl so that you can better account for the carbohydrates from the nuts that you are eating.
  2. Combine nuts with foods higher in carbohydrates like a piece of fruit or dried fruit. The protein, fiber and fat in nuts helps to slow the digestion of carbohydrates, which may help to control the spike in you blood sugar level (this is true for non-diabetics, too).

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