Chestnuts

Today in preschool we are talking about Native Americans, animals they hunted, hibernation and migration. We talked about the link between Native Americans and our holiday of Thanksgiving. Now that we're only a few weeks away from the holiday, I feel like we're REALLY into November, not just getting over Halloween (although we still have all that #@$%$!@# candy left!!). So I've been thinking about Thanksgiving, which is really just thinking about eating. One of my favorite fall foods is the humble chestnut. When I was little we had a chestnut tree by our driveway and I can remember how it was the PERFECT tree to climb for a five-year-old. I used to sit in the tree and eat the nuts that I found on the ground. The other day we were at Sunny Slope orchard and I bought a bag of these guys, and I STILL love them! My youngest also has taken a liking to them so I've decided to look into the nutritional value of them. The general rule is, if it's a seed, it's packed with nutrients since that's the powerhouse of the plant. This holds pretty true for the chestnut.

Health benefits of chestnut

• Chestnuts, unlike other nuts and seeds, are relatively low in calories; contain less fat but are rich in minerals, vitamins and phyto-nutrients that benefit health.

• Nutritionally, chestnuts are similar to other starchy foods such as sweet potato, sweet corn, potatoes etc, consisting of mainly starch. However, they also contain high quality proteins.

• They are good source of dietary fiber; provides 8.1 g (about 21% of RDI) per 100 g. Fiber diet helps lower blood cholesterol levels by remove excess cholesterol absorbing in the intestines.

• Chestnuts stand out from other nuts and seeds because of their nutrition contents. They are exceptionally rich in vitamin-C. 100 g nuts provide 43 mg of vitamin C (72 % of DRI). Vitamin C is essential for formation of matrix in teeth, bones and blood vessels. Being a strong anti-oxidant, it offers protection from harmful free radicals.

• They are the one of the nuts rich in folates. 100 g nuts provide 62 mg of folates (or 15.5%). Folic acid is required for the formation of red blood cells, DNA synthesis. Adequate consumption of food rich in folates during peri-conception period helps prevent neural tube defects in the fetus.

• They are rich source of mono-unsaturated fatty like oleic acid (18:1) and palmitoleic acids (16:1). Studies suggest that monounsaturated fats in the diet help lower total as well as LDL (bad cholesterol) and increase HDL (good cholesterol) levels in the blood. Mediterranean diet which is rich in dietary fiber, monounsaturated fatty acids, omega fatty acids and antioxidants help prevent coronary artery disease and strokes by favoring healthy blood lipid profile.

• The nuts are excellent source of minerals such as iron, calcium, potassium, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus and zinc. Provide very good amount of potassium (518 mcg / 100 g). Potassium helps counter hypertensive action of sodium, lowers heart rate and blood pressure. Iron helps prevent microcytic-anemia. Magnesium and phosphorus are important components of bone metabolism.

• They are also rich in many important B-complex groups of vitamins. 100 g of nuts provide 11% of niacin, 29% of pyridoxine (vit.B-6), 100% of thiamin, and 12% of riboflavin.

• Chinese nuts (C.mollissima) are good in vitamin A; provide 202 IU per 100 g.

So they're pretty good for you. You can eat them raw or roast them. I tried to roast some a few years ago and we had a very messy explosion so I've attached a clip on how to properly roast chestnuts!