Nuts as a snack

[Rebj]

I can’t eat nuts because they are just too delicious and I wind up essentially bingeing on them

Same here!!! I also noticed lately that when I did eat nuts, my joints ached🤔

[Rclause]

I still eat too many nuts. Mostly almond and macadamia but instead of as a snack I usually combine with a meal somewhat like a desert. I am taking a bag of macadamia nuts on a ski trip just in case I get cought in a food joint without any acceptable low carb food. If the nut ingredients list more the nut itself and salt you should probably pass.

[JohnH]

I include nuts in moderation. Pecans and walnuts. Brazil nuts occasionally when they are on sale. I find they work best when used as an ingredient. I.e., add some walnut pieces to your salad, or some pecan pieces with berries, and not eaten alone.

The problem I have with nuts is that they are easy to go grab a handful of and nibble on, when it would be better to just not eat anything at that point.

They are relatively high in carbs per unit volume, compared to something like lettuce or broccoli, and very calorie dense as well. Very easy for me to eat a bit too much of them if they are nearby.

For snacking purposes like at work, best to weigh out your portions into plastic bags, and take 1 or 2 oz with you.

In the famous Westman Page 4 list of foods, nuts are not listed at all as a suitable food, except in a reference to almond milk (2 cups per day max).

So if you need to be super strict on carbs, or have a problem with managing your snacking behavior, perhaps best to avoid nuts.

[Fracmeister]

My problem is what constitutes moderation. I love pecans and cashews. Just ate a 40 gram bag of salted cashews which doesn’t look very big. Only 0.99 euros at the little grocery store so I didn’t bother to check on the carbs.

12 grams. Thats when I google it-- the USDA source says 30g/100g.
Other sources (including the bag) say 21-22 g/100g so my snack would be 8.5 g.

Neverthless they are tasty and have some good fat and protein. Really tasty.

[Rclause]

I have pretty much switched to having some after a meal but I find myself mumbling “I gotta stop buying these things”. The Cocoa dusted almonds are so good with red wine.

[Shinita]

As I had almost no eggs and meat lately so even almost carnivore is out, peanuts reappeared. 5g/meal, I am serious about moderation (And this brand sucks. We will see how good I will be with a better one next week. But I did 5-20g with that too before, except sometimes at night… It’s a great snack. Maybe I will think about oxalates. Or my nice fling with carnivore that made me almost forgot about this addictive food item. I doubt I will have any problem when I will have meat.)

[Rebj]

Cashews are a weakness for me. I can go weeks without any then cave and eat them. I guess it could be worse…like M & Ms!!

[SomeGuy]

And we used to get whole nuts in the shell at Christmas when I was younger. I remember having to shell the nuts and giving up after a few. They were difficult to shell. Now, it’s rare to see nuts in their shells, and we can gobble handfuls of them.

I find that pistachios provide one of the better “bangs” for gram of carb. Twenty pistachios (in the shell) contain about 2 net carbs (after fiber). And yes, you have to open each one - which takes a moment of thought and prolongs the “per nut” enjoyment factor.

But it’s also the case that, if we keep the whole bag nearby, it’s very hard to stop munching. So it all comes down to portion control…

Dole out the max amount you’re willing to eat (say, 20 or so?), and before you start eating, put the rest back on the shelf where they belong. This small step does wonders for cutting off the open-ended munching.

It also helps if you save some of the other “dessert” items for after the nuts are gone (salami, cheese, kimchi, summer sausage, …) so the last taste isn’t one of those pistachios, begging for another. Instead, it’s the cheese or meat - which is a bit easier to stop with when the plate is empty. Food for thought.

[amwassil]

Pistacios are my all time favorite, although I no longer eat them. Maybe one or two when my wife indulges occasionally. She does not seem to have the portion control issue that most of us have with pistacios. She can eat half a dozen or so and put them back on the shelf without qualm.

They’re not bad nutritionally. At 17 net grams of carb per 100 grams anything more than a pittance would really make a big dent in one’s daily carb total. I suppose one could plan ahead for a ‘pistacio day’ to eat no other carbs. I might try that.

[Rebj]

“National Pistachio Day!!”

[Shinita]

I cracked a nice amount of walnuts today. I like them but never use them as snack anymore, they are ingredients. Usually for some sweets but it’s a nice flavoring in savory things as well.
If I make a cake, it either contains walnuts or it would be better with some but I run out and I am lazy to crack more. I have very little anyway (more than 2 years old ones), 2019 was a bad year, some disease(?) ruined the walnuts around here. But I crack them so rarely that it’s fine. And I can live without them for quite long.

Even those I have walnuts with quite hard shells and many of them are hard or impossible to get out even after cracking (the chickadees are happy though as they get those), it’s really not hard to crack them if one fancy a snack. I very quickly crack some for a tiny mugcake… I cracked multiple times as much today and it wasn’t a long time. So the work surely wouldn’t be a deterrent for me. I tend to start to cook something if I fancy it… Cracking some nuts is nothing. It’s just hard to start when I don’t actually need it.

Pistachios are problematic because some has no proper gap, something nothing or just a little and I have not big enough nails… And the salt is outside and I like my nuts quite salty… And they are too expensive and while nice, not particularly tasty to me. Good for some variety but I let the years pass without eating some. Maybe I will put some into a chocolate one day, they looks fab there

[Jose_Alanis]

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size 1.0 slice
Servings Per Container 18
Amount Per Serving
Calories 19
% Daily Value
Total Fat 0g0%
Saturated Fat 0g0%
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 0mg0%
Sodium 10mg0%
Total Carbohydrate 4g1%
Dietary Fiber 1g4%
Sugars 0g
Protein 1g
Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

i can’t eat this too? this is te nutrition facts of my thin rice cakes multi grain wheat free (lieber’s)

[SomeGuy]

They’re not bad nutritionally. At 17 net grams of carb per 100 grams anything more than a pittance would really make a big dent in one’s daily carb total. I suppose one could plan ahead for a ‘pistacio day’ to eat no other carbs. I might try that.

100 grams! Yikes, wouldn’t that come to something like 2 cups of pistachio nuts in the shell? Indeed, this would be a lot of carbs - and (for me, at least) a severe stomach ache. YMMV

[Rclause]

I can eat Pistachios like a machine, nothing but a pile of dust and shells after the carnage. Me eat 10 or 20 is not going to happen. It is more likely going to be 1/4 of the big Costco bag.

[amwassil]

100 grams of shelled pistachios is about 2/3 of a cup.I could eat that without batting an eye.

[Ilana_Rose]

i can’t eat this too?

You can eat them. But it’s about prioritizing where you alot you very restricted carbohydrate budget.

Your only supposed to have 20 net grams of carbohydrates a day. One of those crackers has 3 grams and they have no nutritional value and only 19 calories. So it’s a fairly poor food choice on a ketogenic diet.

[Shinita]

I can eat 1 nut and 100g as well. I only had problems with peanuts but not when I used them after a substantial meal and had some training :).

People can learn and change. I could binge on almost anything in my past, it’s very different now, way less carbs helped tremendously but not only that, I trained myself and have different habits now. It took time but I didn’t need much willpower, ever. I just changed slowly. When I realized I have a trigger food, I usually didn’t eat it or just very rarely. And our relationship changed.