Health Benefits of Nuts and Dried Fruits : An Overview

This chapter summarizes the nutritional significance and health benefits of nuts and dried fruits and also discusses their great potential as salutary foods for a number of diseases afflicting humans. Nuts and dried fruits are nutrient-rich foods and constitute an excellent means to deliver health-promoting bioactive compounds. Tree nuts are recognized as healthy foods because of their unique nutritional attributes. Tree nuts and peanuts are rich in monounsaturated fatty acids, with the exception of Brazil nuts, heartnuts, pine nuts, and walnuts, which are rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids. Nuts are also an important component of the Mediterranean diet, vegetarian diets, and any plant-based dietary pattern recommended for health. Frequent consumption of nuts and/or dried fruits is highly recommended to obtain the full benefit of the nutrients, bioactives, and antioxidants that they contain, together with their desirable flavor. The most commonly consumed nuts are almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamias, peanuts, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios, and walnuts.