Are Cashews Good For You? A popular type of food, cashews can be eaten in different ways, such as on their own, as well as for example covered by chocolate. It is reported that they are commonly used in Indian cooking such as garnishing sweets/curries and also as a paste for example in korma. It can also be noted that cashew apples can be taken raw/put in curries. In addition to Indian cooking, cashews may also be a feature of Thai and Chinese food. The origin of the word was apparently from the Portuguese: “caju” relating to a cashew tree’s fruit – these days it is grown widely in tropical climates for both the fruit and nut.
Of note in relation to natural health remedies (although of course one would probably need specialist advice to use them safely), the Patamona from Guyana are reported to use different parts of the plant medicinally. For instance, the bark can be used by scraping it and soaking it during the night and then it being boiled to be an antidiarrheal. Moreover, it is said that the seeds are made into a power to be used as snake bite antivenom. Furthermore, it has been said that the nut oil can be applied topically to be used for an antifungal.
Looking at the nutritional content of this food in relation to the question: “Are Cashews Good For You?”, within cashew nuts, the monounsaturated amount is 54% (18:1) and polyunsaturated fat 18% (18:2). Moreover, the saturated fat is 16% with 9% of that being palmitic acid (16:0) and 7% stearic acid (18:0). In terms of their other values, per 100 grammes, they give 553 kcal, carbohydrates at 30.19 g, sugars at 5.91 g and dietary fiber at 3.3 g. Moreover, fat is at 43.85 g and protein at 18.22 g. In relation to the US adult recommendations, we can see that Thiamine is given at .42 mg or 37%, magnesium at 292 mg with 82% and zinc at 5.78 mg at 61%. In addition, there is also a wide range of other nutrients that this food provides in addition. Thus, we can see that cashew nuts can be the source of much nutrition.
(reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cashew_nut)
