Health Benefits of Cashews

When it comes to nuts, cashews are probably the most popular. It serves multiple purposes. People can enjoy it as snacks, toppings, sauce or butter. While it is mostly popular for its taste, these kidney-shaped seeds come with multiple health benefits, which can be beneficial for consumers.

Are you addicted to these nuts? Then, keep reading this article to find out the benefits of eating cashews.

What Are the Top Health Benefits of Cashews?

In many parts of the world, people prefer eating raw cashews. However, one should know that raw cashews can often be toxic. It is therefore advisable to consume roasted cashews. If you wish to utilise the health benefits of cashews, roast the seeds before eating them. Some of the benefits are as follows.

1. Cardiovascular Disease Prevention

Diets rich in nuts, such as cashews, improve heart health and reduce cardiovascular disease risks. These are rich in potassium, fatty acids and antioxidants, which can be beneficial for strengthening your heart. The stronger your heart is, the lower the chances of facing cardiovascular diseases.

Furthermore, cashews contain phenolic compounds, phytosterols, and oleic acid. These are good for heart health and strengthen the blood vessels. Apart from that, this nut can also improve good cholesterol (HDL) and eliminate bad cholesterol (LDL). In addition, its anti-inflammatory properties can reduce the possibilities of internal inflammation of your heart, thereby reducing the chances of a heart attack.

2. Blood Pressure Management

Cashews can lower blood pressure while managing total and LDL cholesterol levels. This is because these nuts contain unsaturated fats and minerals such as potassium, magnesium and L-arginine. These can help dilate your blood vessels. As a result, your blood pressure can be under control.

However, a recent study confirms that consuming cashew nuts can effectively reduce blood pressure and triglyceride levels, but its effects on total, LDL, or HDL cholesterol levels are unclear.

3. Type-2 Diabetes Control

One of the most important benefits of eating cashew nuts is its ability to help people suffering from type-2 diabetes. These seeds are considered good sources of fibre, which can effectively manage and control blood sugar levels. This way, cashews protect you from the negative impacts of type-2 diabetes.

A study revealed that people who have type-2 diabetes could get 10% of their calorie Daily Value (DV), which helps them reduce their overall insulin level. It has low levels of net carb content. You can easily substitute food items with high crab levels and control your diabetic conditions.

4. Immunity Booster

Cashew nuts are also known for strengthening the immunity of individuals. These contain multiple nutrients, including vitamins and zinc. These are immune-boosting compounds contributing to basic cell processes. Intaking zinc regularly can strengthen your immunity and protect your system from getting infected easily.

Apart from that, this nut is also rich in copper. This mineral is essential for the human body. It boosts immunity and contributes to energy production and healthy brain development. Therefore, consuming cashews can contribute to strong immunity.

5. Bone Strength Booster

The risk of fragile bones has become a common health concern which comes with old age. Cashews are often considered a great source for strengthening bones and reducing the chances of bone-related diseases and injuries. This is because they are packed with copper and calcium. These minerals offer strength to the bones and protect them longer. Copper is also responsible for synthesising the collagens, thereby keeping your bones flexible and less prone to breakage.

Copper deficiency is often considered a major reason for osteoporosis. As cashews are rich in copper, their consumption can save you from such bone-related conditions. Moreover, cashews contain magnesium and manganese. These nutrients can contribute to strengthening the bone health of individuals.

6. Weight Control

The weight control factor is significant among other benefits of eating cashews daily. Its high calorie, protein, and fibre content make it capable of controlling body weight. Consuming cashews can keep you full for longer, controlling your cravings for heavy food items. Naturally, you can control and avoid gaining weight in the process.

The omega 3 fatty acids in cashews help them increase metabolism and avoid putting on weight. Even though these are high in calories, such nuts can hardly contribute to increasing your weight. However, you must keep your calorie consumption capacity in mind while including cashews in your diet.

7. Hair Benefits

Consuming a cashew rich diet cashews can be useful. These nuts can help produce hair pigment-melanin in the body, enhancing the hair colour and quality. In addition, doctors often suggest using cashew oil on the scalp for hair growth and health.

The copper content in cashew nuts contributes to the production of hair pigment and skin called melanin. Moreover, these nuts contain linoleic and oleic acids, which can provide a silky smooth texture to your hair. The fatty acids in cashews can maintain your hair health longer.

8. Eye Health

If you are concerned about the health of your eyes, consuming cashews can be essential. These are rich in antioxidants like zeaxanthin and lutein. These can protect your eyes from the UV rays. Furthermore, they form antioxidant pigments in the eyes, protecting them from damaging lights. They also contribute to reducing the growing risks of cataracts and age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

The zeaxanthin content in the cashews can contribute to the protection of the eyes from the growing pollution in the urban world. This pigment is absorbed in the retina and thereby forms a protective layer preventing the entrance of UV rays.

9. Improvement of Skin

Consuming cashews daily can contribute to improving your skin conditions largely. Cashew oil is known for doing wonders to your skin. It is rich in valuable nutrients like zinc, selenium, magnesium, iron and phosphorous. Moreover, the high presence of phytochemicals, proteins and antioxidants are also seen in this oil. Therefore, it contributes to improving your skin conditions.

Cashews are rich in selenium, which can again contribute to skin health and prevent skin cancer. In addition, copper presence in cashews increases the production of elastin and collagen. Collagen can contribute to increasing the elasticity of your skin.

There are multiple nutritional values of cashews. This is because these nuts come packed with various nutrients which can improve your overall health conditions. For example, the following nutrients are observed in about an ounce of unroasted and unsalted cashew nuts.

Nutrients	Nutritional Value
Protein	5 gm
Carbs	9 gm
Calories	157 cal
Fat	12 gm
Fibre	1 gm
Magnesium	20% DV
Copper	67% DV
Manganese	20% DV
Zinc	15% DV
Phosphorus	13% DV
Selenium	10% DV
Iron	11% DV
Thiamine	10% DV
Selenium	10% DV
Vitamin K	8% DV
Vitamin B6	7% DV

Thus, as you can see, the nutritional value of cashew nuts is impressive. They are not only tasty but can do immense good to keep you healthy for a long time. The unsaturated fat contents can help reduce the chances of premature death from heart diseases.

Even though these keep you full of fat and calorie contents, there is hardly any chance of weight gain. They are low in sugar, and the protein content is almost as much as in cooked meat. In addition, the mineral contents help in increasing energy production and brain development.

How to Include Cashews in Daily Diet?

Now that you are aware of the advantages of cashew nuts, you must be curious to know the best ways of incorporating this nut into your daily diet. One of the best parts of this nut is its ability to be incorporated into a diet easily. It is advisable to store these in a cool, dark and dry place to avoid causing any harm to their nutritional value. You can follow any recipes below to incorporate cashew nuts into your diet.

Cashew milk: Take a handful of cashews and soak them for about 4 hours. Then, rinse and drain the water. After adding the cashews to a bowl, add two more cups of water, sweetener, vanilla extract and sea salt. Blend it all for a medium consistency. You can enjoy cashew milk instead of dairy.
Cashew butter: You can prepare your cashew butter similar to peanut butter. Start with roasting raw cashews at 350° F oven for 10 - 15 minutes. Next, add them to your food processor and turn them on. It will become powdery at first. Keep adding some oil till it gets the thickness and smooth texture of butter. Then, you can enjoy it with bread.
Healthy trail mix: This is the easiest recipe and a healthy way of enhancing your diet. You can use 1 - 2 cups of raw nuts, including cashews, almonds and peanuts. Add some dry fruits, chopped dark chocolates, popcorns, sunflower seeds, etc. Take all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix them well. You can store it for up to about a month.
Salad: If you like to have light meals, consider adding roasted cashews to your salad. Simply roast raw cashews. Then, take a bowl and add all the vegetables you like to a salad. These may include carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, etc. Next, add the roasted cashew and mix well. You can add some oil while mixing it.
Toppings: When preparing main dishes, such as chicken curry, you can garnish the dish with roasted and broken cashews. This is a simple process, but it can add different flavours to the dish. Moreover, it is likely to enhance the health benefits of the dish.

What Are the Side Effects of Overeating Cashew?

While there are multiple advantages of cashew nuts, one should consider some of their downsides in this regard. For instance, if you consume a lot of roasted or salted cashews, your salt and oil intake is increasing largely. Thus is advisable to avoid adding salt and oil while dry roasting the cashew nuts. For dry roasting, your cashews spread on a baking tray and bake them for 8 - 15 minutes at 350° F (188° C).

On the other hand, raw cashews are also not safe for consumption. These contain a harmful element called urushiol, often found in poison ivy. Its toxic components may trigger skin reactions in most people. While cashew kernels are often available raw in stores, these are boiled. Hence, these are free of toxins.

Apart from that, cashews contain phytates. It causes your body to find it difficult to absorb the vitamins and minerals in these nuts. These can also prevent your body from utilising the benefits of these nutrients. Therefore, doctors advise soaking the nuts overnight before consuming these. It will reduce the phytates content in these.

Who Should Avoid Eating Cashews?

As discussed already, there are not many risks associated with cashew consumption. However, you should avoid these nuts if you have a general allergy to nuts. Moreover, overeating cashews can cause issues of digestion and constipation. Hence, you should avoid eating these if you already have health problems. There are also risks of weight gain and joint swelling in exceptional cases. Therefore, it is advisable for people who are trying to lose weight or get rid of joint pains to avoid overeating cashews.

Thus, as you can see, there are multiple benefits of eating cashews. These nuts are packed with rich proteins and nutrients. They are tasty and can also improve your health by incorporating nutritional value. However, you should consult the doctor if you suffer from conditions of digestion, constipation or the extra fat generation before integrating cashews into your diet.

Frequently Asked Questions

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How many cashews should I eat in a day?

It is advisable to eat 3 - 4 nuts in a day, considering both cashew nuts' positive and negative effects. Any more than that might be harmful to your body.

Are cashews good for weight loss?

Cashews contain magnesium, which can contribute to increasing your metabolism. However, cashews are rich in fat, which means they might not be able to reduce weight.