That looks like one evil hamster!

What are almonds?

Botanically speaking, almonds are not nuts but seeds. Neither am I a botanist, nor do I care. For paleo disciples, almonds are just great. Why? Just read on.

Application

Not only do almonds taste good in their pure, raw form but also in various, more or less manually processed variants. Everybody’s darling, almond butter, is just one of them. Other variants include almond meal as universal substitute for wheat flour and kibbled almonds as coat for meat and poultry.

Make your own crunchy almond butter by adding ground almonds to a creamy blend. And then eat half it instantly...

Almond butter is made by grinding almonds until they turn into a more or less creamy paste. Almond butter is available in creamy and crunchy flavors. If you don’t know where to get crunchy almond butter, just take a creamy blend and mix in some ground almonds. That way, you can also control the exact degree of crunchiness.

Just as you would crumb a chicken breast with breadcrumbs, you can do the same by using kibbled almonds as coat. And in case you asked yourself whether you would ever eat pastries after starting to live life the paleo way, almond flour is the answer: use it instead of wheat flour. It’s not as sticky, but many doughs will still work with it.

Another great treat is the addition of split almonds to your salad, especially when you need to make up for some of your fat blocks.

Nutritional facts

Find all details on the nutritional composition of raw almonds on nutritiondata.com. Obviously, almonds contain lots of fat, monounsaturated fatty acids to be precise. That, again, is called the “heart-healthy” fat. Other substances worth mentioning definitely are a huge amount of Vitamin E and quite a lot of Magnesium and Manganese. So if you think you need more of those, just go ahead and munch a few almonds. If you are eating almonds for health reasons, make sure to eat them with their skin, because that contains most of the many flavonoids. But the almond skin is not only healthy – it also contributes to the taste. Crunchy almond butter is only half as good when it comes without the almonds’ skins. Sure, it might stick to your teeth from time to time. But the taste is more than worth it.

And as if all of that was not enough, almonds in the diet improve plasma alpha-tocopherol (antioxidant) concentrations and reduce plasma lipids¹. And apart from their antioxidant activity² almonds might even reduce insulin secretion³.

[1] Jenkins DJ, Kendall CW, Marchie A, Josse AR, Nguyen TH, Faulkner DA, Lapsley KG, Blumberg J, “Almonds in the diet simultaneously improve plasma alpha-tocopherol concentrations and reduce plasma lipids“, J Am Diet Assoc., 2005 Mar;105(3):449-54

[2] Jenkins DJ, Kendall CW, Marchie A, Josse AR, Nguyen TH, Faulkner DA, Lapsley KG, Blumberg J, “Almonds reduce biomarkers of lipid peroxidation in older hyperlipidemic subjects“, J Nutr., 2008 May;138(5):908-13

[3] Jenkins DJ, Kendall CW, Marchie A, Josse AR, Nguyen TH, Faulkner DA, Lapsley KG, Singer W, “Effect of almonds on insulin secretion and insulin resistance in nondiabetic hyperlipidemic subjects: a randomized controlled crossover trial“, Metabolism, 2008 Jul;57(7):882-7.