Dear Mark: Nuts and Omega-6s
Nuts have gotten a surprising amount of flack as of late. Many nuts have a fairly high PUFA content, and most of that PUFA is Omega-6, which is the bad one. It’s easily oxidized, highly unstable for cooking, usually rancid on the shelf, and, thanks to government farm subsidies and public hysteria over animal fat, it’s in absolutely everything nowadays. We Primal types generally avoid it for good reason, and that tends to influence how we react to the O6 content of nuts. Last week I received this email from a reader:
Dear Mark,
I’m a little confused. I get the animal fat, the meat, the veggies, and the lowish sugar fruit recommendations, but what about nuts? I love nuts, don’t get me wrong… I’m just a bit paranoid about the Omega 6 content. You recommend nuts in the book. If you (and pretty much all other Primal bloggers) tell us to avoid Omega 6 fats, should we still be eating them? I’m having trouble reconciling the two bits of advice and there seem to be mixed messages out there. Thanks.
Is there a place for nuts in the Primal Blueprint diet? Let’s take a closer look.
Omega-6 Content Various Nuts (1/4 cup)
Walnuts – 9.5 g
Almonds – 4.36 g
Cashews – 2.6 g
Macadamias – 0.5 g
Brazil nuts – 7.2 g
Hazelnuts – 2.7 g
Pistachio – 4.1 g
Pine nuts – 11.6 g
Pecans – 5.8 g
The basic takeaway is that quite a few nuts are fairly O6-intensive (with several, like macadamia nuts, being extremely low). A diet high in these nuts, then, would presumably skew the vaunted tissue O6-O3 ratio toward pro-inflammatory bodily processes… right? I mean, if you were to eat food fried in high-O6 vegetable oil at some restaurant, that would be pro-inflammatory. If you were to eat cheap Chinese food stir-fried in cheap, high-O6 soybean oil every day for lunch, you’d expect a good amount of oxidized LDL at your next lipid test. And if you were to supplement your diet with a few daily tablespoons of unheated corn oil, there would be markedly negative effects (besides gagging and/or vomiting) on your body. How are nuts any different?
For one, nuts aren’t just “bags of linoleic acid” (as Stephan Guyenet recently pointed out in a comment board I’ve misplaced). Isolating Omega-6 fatty acids and then exposing them to air or heat is bad dietary policy. I don’t care where it is – in your body, in your cupboard, or in the skillet. But nuts are much more than linoleic acid. In fact, a nut is a pretty complete nutritional source. After all, it’s the seed of a tree, a sort of arboreal egg. Contained within is everything that tree needs to start growing from scratch – fats, carbohydrates, even protein, plus natural antioxidants like Vitamin E and plenty of minerals. We have to remember that antioxidants in foods exist, first and foremost, to protect the food from damage. That linoleic acid in the walnut isn’t meant for you to consume (we’ve adapted to it, not the other way around); it’s there to provide energy for the budding tree. A damaged, oxidized fat is no good to any tree, and Vitamin E helps prevent oxidation. When we strip a nut of everything but the liquid fat, we’re asking for trouble, but if we eat the whole nut, the fat remains protected by the natural antioxidants, at least to a point (eating burnt, damaged, or rancid nuts isn’t the same as eating raw or soaked nuts). In other words, extracting, refining, and isolating a highly unstable Omega-6 fatty acid in oil form is entirely different than eating the odd handful of pistachios every other day or so. If you roast your nuts to the point of burning, then, yeah, you’re probably eating damaged fats, and that could be a problem. But eating a quarter cup of nuts every few days isn’t going to hurt you – even if they’re high-O6 walnuts (the horror!).
Even if the Omega-6 fat in nuts is bad, the positives of the nut seem to weigh more heavily. Whole nut intake seems to reduce markers of systemic inflammation, and inflammation is linked with a wide range of ailments and afflictions (obesity, insulin resistance, heart disease, excess cortisol, etc.). The study’s (PDF) authors hesitate to isolate and praise a single component of the nut, referring to them as “complex food matrices containing diverse nutrients and other chemical constituents.” I think that’s an accurate appraisal of the humble, irreducible nut.
What’s the Downside?
Problems arise with steady year-round access to foods whose historical availability was seasonal and intermittent. If you were a hunter-gatherer, you probably weren’t gathering bushels of nuts on a daily basis – at least, you weren’t finding enough nuts in the wild to eat eight ounces a day. Nuts should never comprise the bulk of your diet, anyway. A quarter cup as a snack every now and then isn’t going to kill you. It’s not even going to compromise your progress. I mean, they’re nuts. They aren’t meals, and they’re not meant to be. They’re snacks, basic supplements to an already nutritious diet replete in animal fat, protein, and vegetables. And in a high Omega-3 diet like the Primal Blueprint they definitely have a place.
Just make sure you treat your nuts as delicious snacks, rather than staple cornerstones of a meal. Don’t burn your nuts, and don’t cook with the oil. The safest bet is to buy them raw and soak or roast them yourself. That way, you control the heat and you can mediate the oxidation.
Overanalyzing your food intake is a good way to stress yourself out and make every little dietary choice an internal struggle. Avoid falling into this trap. Be vigilant of your food choices, but pick your battles wisely. Making sure you ask the waiter to cook your omelet in butter rather than vegetable oil is worth the trouble; stressing over the Omega-6 content of the twenty walnuts in front of you is decidedly not.
This is a fairly contentious topic in the community, with a ton of bloggers weighing in. Richard Nikoley (last I heard) opts for the harvest-and-gorge nut consumption style, going regular periods of time where he eats none at all. He’ll avoid buying any “for 2-3 store visits in a row.” Remember, Grok didn’t have around the clock access to nuts.
Stephan Guyenet and Don Matesz go back and forth in the comments section of Don’s recent post on walnuts, in which Don offers very sound evidence in favor of walnut consumption. Definitely check it out.
My general take, as I see it, is that nuts shouldn’t make up the bulk of your caloric intake. It’s not that Omega-6s are inherently dangerous, especially bound up in whole food, nut form; nuts may even be beneficial to heart health, probably by decreasing systemic inflammation. It’s that they’re often too available, too plentiful, and way too easy to consume in excess. What drew our ancestors to nuts – the caloric density and the fat content – is what makes them “dangerous” to modern man. Most seeds, including grains, were passed over because the labor involved in their gathering and their refining was prohibitive with inadequate payoff. Nuts are meaty, though, and they’re dense and (somewhat) filling. It makes sense that we easily snack on them all day, because our ancestors probably gorged themselves on nuts when they were available. We should eat them, too, but it’s important to stick to reasonable, evolutionarily realistic amounts.
Care to weigh in with your thoughts on nuts? I know a lot of forum members have reservations about them, so I’d love to hear in the comments section.
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Posted By: Mark Sisson
Mark, does soaking nuts in water overnight reduce anti-nutrients in it?
Here you go, Kishore:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/soaking-seeds-and-nuts/
The book “Nurishing Traditions” by Sally Falon talks about soaking nuts in lightly salted water overnight to help with assimilation of the nutrients. I have to get my copy of the book back out and brush up on my nuts! Oops!
Since going primal, my nut consumption has dramatically increased. I used to care less about them, but having tuned my taste buds away from overly sweet or salty foods (i.e., junk foods), they’ve quickly latched on to nuts as a delicious treat. For a while around the new year, my nut consumption had ramped up to a daily indulgence. Even though I stuck to the lower omega 6 nuts (macadamia and almonds), I found that I was starting to gain some weight around the midsection and my appetite had increased. Listening to Robb Wolf’s podcasts, I realized that nuts might be to blame so I cut them out completely for a week and returned to my normal post-going-primal weight and appetite. I’ve since added them back in to my diet, but only in small, carefully controlled amounts. Usually instead of eating them alone, I add them to salads. They are a great, healthy alternative to croutons!
Exactly. They’re a condiment or a snack, and can occasionally be used in larger quantities for baking purposes- as long as you’re eating plenty of Omega 3s I don’t see to much to worry about.
Yes, many on the PB find that cutting nuts and/or dairy can help break a weight loss plateau. Thanks for the comment, Aaron.
Aaron pumpkin seeds are awesome for salads too. Fewer cals, more protein, & IMO less addictive
Do you soak or roast them? Do you need to remove the shell before consuming them?
I just buy the raw shelled ones from the bulk at the grocery store. Unless its Halloween, then I just eat the guts raw
Or… any other time I have squash.
Like Grok (below) I have also roasted seeds from the various squash varieties that I cook for dinner. It is a little bit of a chore to separate and clean them but worth it. I just roast them with little sea salt. Then I don’t have to wait for Halloween.
In “Eat Fat, Lose Fat”, Sally Fallon and Mary Enig talk about how eating a lot of monounsaturated fats can cause some weight gain. The idea fat, of course, is saturated fats because, if I remember correctly, you’re body utilizes them and burns them for energy quicker than the unsaturated fats.
I’ve noticed the same thing, too, when it comes to overeating on the nuts. It just gives me a completely different feeling than when I eat saturated fats (especially coconut oil).
So, yeah, up with the saturated fats, and some moderation with the monos/polyunsaturated fats.
I think people might be forgetting that omega 6 is still an essential fatty Acid, meaning our body can’t make it, so we need to consume it. We just need to consume the right ratio of it. It’s only bad if consumed in excess and/or in a damaged form.
Remember- our body uses omega 6 to synthesize Gamma Linoleic Acid (GLA), which is very manti-inflammatory.
I personally don’t worry about it too much. I eat a handful of nuts or a few spoonfuls of almond butter on a daily basis and my Omega 9 (monounsaturated) and saturated fat intake still far outweighs my Omega 6 intake when I crunch the numbers.
Now I just need to work on being more consistent about Omega 3!
Nuts are mini embryos… like beans, they will make you sterile…
troy
Now this is just totally freakin stupid.
You can’t seriously believe that! My husband and I eat lots of almonds and beans, as well. I just had my 3rd child 9 weeks ago. There are no fertility problems here.
Jamie, beans are usually loaded with phyto-estrogens. Nuts, not really.
Here’s some phyto-estrogen content (mcg/100g or 4OZ) in certain foods:
Flax seed 379,380
Soy beans 103,920
Tofu 27,150.1
Soy yogurt 10,275
Sesame seed 8008.1
Flax bread 7540
Multigrain bread 4798.7
Soy milk 2957.2
Hummus 993
I do not eat soy at all, but properly prepared beans (soaked and sprouted), yes, sometimes. Nuts, though, we eat quite a lot.
nother Horizon programme..unless in Blighty we canny use BBC I player but can download from myriad other sources.
Very interesting of note in the prog were the bods doing research on oxidative stress and anti-oxidants and if i understood them correctly, certainly in mice…….antioxidants did bugger all.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qm7zr
Exactly.
When I first started PB, I had some nuts every day to help transition over, but I found that it actually make me hungrier.. So now I’ll eat ‘em if they’re around, but I won’t go out of my way to stock up on them. I find eating a hard boiled egg is much more satisfying than a handful of nuts
Very interesting post! Im not gonna stress about my almond butter that I have once in awhile, or those *gasp* walnuts I sprinkle on my salad every so often.
Enjoy life, no one ever died from eating healthy except for nuts! lol
Stick to Macadamia nuts predominantly and you will have no problem, they taste the best anyway….
As Mark says though if you use them as a snack you will have no problems. Have a look at this article I wrote on nuts a while back for tips on consumption http://zentofitness.com/nuts-how-much-is-enough/
+1
Plus the price of the dang things will keep you from buying them as often
i agree macdamia nuts are the best…esp straight out of the fridge!
As a grower of pecans and follower of your primal blueprint I think your post is fair. I eat a small handful of nuts most days but not as a meal. I raise a grassfed beef for that.
As a side note I recently purchased your book for my brother in law and he can not believe his weight loss and how much better he feels. My results were the same.
Thanks for the clarification Mark! I have been downing a ton of nuts each day. Problem is, I don’t like avocados or coconut so much so I found a handful of nuts at each meal was an easy way to get my fat. Now I understand that I will have to limit that as well. Maybe I will better control my appetite like another poster without all the nuts?
What about nut butters? Do the same principles apply?
My only problem with nuts is that it’s hard to find really fresh ones. Most are old and have mold (you don’t see it by the way)…if you eat them frequently this is an issue I think. Best to keep it random.
Marc
My body is hyper sensitive and I’m dealing with huge leaky gut, candida and inflammation problems.
I get irritated from almost anything except meat, but I want to stay out of ketosis because it seems my kidneys became irritated from too low carb (don’t know why).
Right now it’s no nuts, no seeds and no eggs and it seems to be helping. Even eggs, for unknown reasons, are irritation. I know the whites could be Biotin binding, but I don’t know why my system gets irritated from them.
Too much fruit seem to irritate also. It might be because of the fructose because I’m having a lot of spaghetti squash in order to stay out of ketosis and I don’t have any problem. Spaghetti squash is low on fructose to my knowledge.
Of course, I’m also focusing on a lot of probiotics to help out with the candida and maybe fix my problems ounce and for all.
It’s funny all problem foods for me are foods that are in the grey area for the Paleo diet. Seems that these food choices are borderline fine for already healthy people and out of question for people with challenges.
For the egg sensitivity… I have heard that some people are sensitive to egg whites. For some people, mixing the white & the yolk (for example, cooking the eggs scrambled instead of sunny side up) is enough to let them eat the eggs without problems. But if they eat the whites & yolks separately they get problems.
Just a thought, maybe something to try. Good luck!
I’m one of those that’s highly allergic to the whites. I can eat the yolks just fine.
I get intestinal swelling minutes after consuming egg whites. Intestinal swelling is an anaphylactic shock in the gut…but it isn’t called that. They only call it an anaphylactic shock when it happens in your throat and cuts off air passage…resulting in death most of the time.
Well, for years I had no clue what’s causing my giant ’8 month pregnant’ belly (I wasn’t pregnant) until I finally had an allergy test done…after having an anaphylactic shock in the throat and was rushed to the emergency room.
I have however NO clue what exactly it is in the egg whites that causes that. Wish someone had an answer
Un digested cooked protein molecules
I can really relate to your post. Was diagnosed with colitis in December 2009 after 3 years of symptoms. Had not eaten gluten, corn and or dairy for 10 years because I knew these foods upset my system. But was otherwise high carb low fat and was slowly getting worse over time. Going paleo in July 2009 helped shift the trend to improvement. But was still experiencing minor symptoms until I cut out a daily dose of raw mixed nuts and eggs. Loren Cordain posted an excellent explanation on his blog about why egg whites might cause a problem in sensitive individuals. I’m now pretty much asymptomatic, and owe a huge debt of gratitude to people such as Mark, which I can never really repay notwithstanding purchasing his book (which arrived yesterday).
Hey have you tried the Specific Carbohydrate Diet? Its very similar to Primal– but was created by Drs about 50 years ago to help heal the intestines, usually for patients with Celiac, Colitis etc. But Leaky Gut too. It might be interesting for you to read about.
I’m on the same journey with you Sebastian. Leaky gut, candida, adrenal fatigue, you know, the works haha. I also find eggs and nuts irritate me for now and will give your suggestion of staying out of a ketosis a go. Seems like a struggle everyday but I know we can do this!
F
Sebastian, L-glutamine in large quantities is an effective way to fix leaky gut. Atleast 15 grams taken 3-4 times a day between meals. Stay away from common allergens: Eggs, wheat, oatmeal, dairy, shellfish. Take enough fish oil (3-5grams daily).
Sebastien,
I feel your pain. I was like that years ago. I could not eat anything except meat and homemade broth for a long time. It turned out that I have several food allergies. After I strictly avoided the allergenic foods and followed Specific Carbohydrate Diet for better part of a year I was a lot better. It has been a few years since I had to do that – there are still foods that I can not eat but much better than I was.
Try extra virgin coconut oil. It is very good for digestion but is very detoxing so watch out.
Good luck.
Is it about the same idea with the Omega 6′s in seeds such as flax and chia. Take them out if your weight is stalling but a few tablespoons are fine?
Thanks for the tip on eating out – I’ve never thought about request my order be cooked with butter rather than the oil! In fact, the strange looks will be half the pleasure.
Isn’t the favorable 3:6 ratio for Walnuts and Macadamia nuts what make them our first choices as far as nuts go?
Recent medical knowledge is coming to agree that you want the ratio of Omega-3s to Omega 6s to be almost 1:1 rather than 1:4 or even 1:2 as was previously thought.
That’s why, in my opinion, Walnuts, which have long been touted to have the “optimal ratio” of polyunsaturated fats definitely do not, as we are (yes, even the Government nutritionists!) slowly learning.
Can you link study refs? Searching Pubmed for Walnut http://tinyurl.com/9e799bu does not result in any articles finding inflammation markers increased. Given that n-6/n-3 is 4 it borderline on the PUFA theory and we don’t have a very good idea how the Walnut is digested. For example, could it be the Omega-3 “beats” Omega-6 to the pathway mediating Omega-6 metabolism? Also, remember the typical American diet has a ratio of 16 to 20.
I LOVE nuts. All nuts. I have nuts every day. But, never as a main dish – who does?
Nuts are a perfect snack and a perfect garnish to salads. Nut butters are excellent for smoothies/shakes or as a spread on celery.
I am going more and more primal as the days progress, but I think I will always love my irish steel cut oats 1-2 times a week
This with any kind of nut is incredible.
Mark,
What about coconuts? Coconuts are nuts but seem to be different then a traditional nut? I now consume some form of coconut everyday. Coconut oil, coconut flour (1-2 times a week in coconut pancakes!, coconut milk, coconut flakes, coconut water, fresh coconut meat….
It by no means makes up the bulk of my diet… maybe 100 calories a day on average (rough guess)… is this ok? What if I was consuming 300 calories of coconut a day… would this be ok?
My understanding is that Coconut is actually an MCT (Medium Chain Triglyceride) and is fairly different than the omega3/6 fats available in most other nut products.
Almost every day I consume between 500-2,000 calories of coconut. Often much more. Oil, milk, flakes, water (in that order) make up the bulk.
You should be fine.
That’s awesome. I admire you, lol. I never ate coconut until about one month ago. My father always had a whole coconut around and added it to various stuff (usually cereal – gross) and I never had any. My mind told me coconut was gross.
Thankfully I found this website and have learned that coconut is incredible for you.
I now love coconut and it is one of my favorite foods. David Wolfe says it is the #1 natural liquid source of electrolytes…. therefore the perfect sport drink – take that Gatorade.
Yes, I understand that coconut is vastly different. Coconut milk has 14 grams of fat per serving, but 12 grams is saturated fat. So, it has little omega 3 or omega 6 fatty acids, if any.
But, wow, up to 2,000 calories a day of coconut? How many calories do you eat total in a day?
If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll see plenty of coconut talk, plus lots of other useless info
Depends on the day, but I usually fall somewhere between 2,500-9,000. Up to 20,000 if I don’t care & go unmetered. 6,000 to 9,000 seams to be where I’ll naturally land for a meal. Keep in mind this is primal food, not junk.
Interested to see what your thoughts were on Macadamia Nut Oil for cooking Mark. Robb Wolf talks a lot about not using Olive Oil for high-temp cooking, as it’s fairly easily oxidizable. Since then I’ve been using Macadamia Nut Oil, which according to the data from the company I purchased it through is 1:1 in Omega3:Omega6. It also tastes like BUTTER!
My understanding is that the same issues are involved with heating ANY unsaturated oil (either Poly or mono). My advice is to stick with more saturated oils, especially coconut, for your cooking purposes.
I’ve definitely noticed that I can’t eat a ton of nuts. I swear I used to be able to, but not any more. As a snack, a handful is fine, great even (they can be delicous), or as a salad topper, but NEVER as a meal. Oh god, unless you want to have no appetite and terrible BM’s for the next 24 hours.
Just a bit here and there….mmmmmmmmmmmm
When I first moved to AR I noticed we had many hickory nut trees. That fall I collected the nuts and cracked them. They are not like the thin shelled walnuts or pecans – no, the shell is very thick and it was a lot of work getting to the nut. No gorging on hickory nuts – took too long to get a handful.
I imagine nuts in paleotime were not the thin shelled varieties we have now.
That year I also collected the wild blueberries from the woods. They were very tiny berries with a wonderful taste. Again, collection was slow making them a treat.
Thanks for the info on nuts and O6′s.
i have super high cholesterol, and have been trying to get a better 0mega 3/6 balance. anyone have a good link or resource that shows foods levels of both 3&6?
Often foods are touted as being high in level 3, but forget to mention that they are 4 times that high in omega 6′s, like all of those ‘heart healthy’ spreads that i no longer use- very frustrating.
I noticed cooking with oils was mentioned because of their high Omega-6 content, so i wanted to ask a question pertaining to Canola Oil. WIth nearly a 2:1 ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3 fatty acids, is cooking eggs and such in canola oil ok?
I’d say stay away from canola oil totally. Cook with butter, ghee, coconut oil, lard, tallow or other animal fats.
- Butter from grassfed cows, i should add. If you don’t have access to a local farm, there is a brand called irish gold, that is supposed to be from pastured cows, that is readily available. you could google to find others
Anchor butter, from New Zealand, is also from grass-fed cows, and is delicious.
I searched irish gold and found kerry gold… after some more searching it seems as if they are the same brand? Is this true?
Sorry yes. It’s called Kerrygold Irish Butter. I realized last night i got the name wrong……what can i say, I’m just a caveman.
I ceated a list for myself some time ago:
Nuts and seeds that are low in omega 6:
chestnuts
macadamia
chia
acorn
lotus
breadfruit seeds
~hazelnut or filberts -> border line
~flaxseed, chia, -> other issues
breadnuttree seeds
ginkgo nuts
So what’s considered too many nuts in a day? I usually pack 2oz. of walnuts which I snack on throughout the day when I get hungry. Would that be considered too many?
Oh no! I probably eat about a quarter pound of nuts a day. They’re all raw and various kinds, (pretty much all the ones Mark listed above). I have to say though, that I have severely decreased BF% and have even lost a fair amount of weight. Daily, I usually consume lots of protien (meat, fish, chicken, etc) and TONS of nuts. I also eat a fair amount of raw sheep and goats milk cheese and have a glass (or a whole bottle, I KNOW, I KNOW) of red wine 2-3 days a week. But, I must say, I am making a killing; energy level is through the roof, faster stronger, leaner and most importantly LESS HUNGRY. Intermittent fasting has become a breeze since eating this way, (with the large amount of nuts that is, been doing this for about 6 or so months).
I grind up macadamia nuts and coconut oil. I store it in the refrigerator, since the integrity of the nuts have been compromised. I have about 2 oz of the mixture a day. Sometimes spread over some celery, or right off the spoon. Occasionally, I’ll take some unsweetened coconut flakes, and grind them into the butter.
that sound so yummy!!!!!
I am probably guilty of eating 2 many nuts. I eat a lot of almonds and I have a mature walnut tree in my garden. It is the start of the harvest season and I collect and store enough nuts to last for about 9months of the year. I probably use half a kilogram a week.
My children love almonds and walnuts and if it were a choice between sugary confection or cake I’d rather seem them snack on the nuts.
Good take, Mark.
Dave Lull sent me a study awhile ago that showed that eating nuts with yogurt helped minimize the downsides and maximize the upsides of consuming a few nuts here and there. That’s how I eat my nuts: sprinkled on top of yogurt. That’s a primal dessert for me.
Cheers,
Brent
Big fan of the nuts here. I figure I get so many Omega 3′s in my diet, that I don’t worry too much about my nut consumption. However, I wish raw almond butter tasted as good as roasted!