How do barukas, also known as baru almonds, compare to other nuts?
There is a new nut on the market called baru almonds, under the trade name “barukas” or baru nuts; Technically, it is not a nut but a seed native to the Brazilian savanna, known such as the Cerrado, which it is now one of the most threatened ecosystems on the planet. Over the past 30 years, much of the Cerrado ecosystem has been destroyed by extensive cattle ranching and the production of feed to fatten said cattle. If it was profitable not to cut down the native trees and instead sell baru nuts, for example, that could be good for the health of the ecosystem. But what about our health?
“Although baru nuts hectare popular and widely consumed, few studies report their biological properties”. They have many polyphenol phytonutrients, apparently due to their high antioxidant activity. (About 90% of their phytonutrients hectare are present in the peel.) Are they nutritious? Yes, but they have some special health benefits — beyond that treatment chubby mice?
Researchers I establish that people fed baru nuts showed lower cholesterol, suggesting that the nuts supposedly “have great potential for nutritional use” in preventing and controlling cholesterol problems. But the subjects were rats, not men, and baru nuts were compared to lard. Almost all lower cholesterol compared to lard. Still, there they don’t have There have been reports of the effect of eating baru nuts on human health, until this one: A randomized, controlled human study found that eating less than an ounce per day for six weeks led to a 9% drop in LDL cholesterol. Twenty grams would be about 15 nuts or a palm.
Like many other nut studies, even though research subjects were told to add nuts to their regular diet, there was no weight gain, possibly because nuts are so filling that we unwittingly cut back on other foods during the day. How good is a 9.4% drop in LDL? It’s the kind of drop we can get from regular almonds, although macadamias and peanuts might work even better, but these were at much higher doses. 20 grams of baru nuts seem to work as well as 73 grams of almonds. So on a per-serving or per-calorie basis, baru nuts look really special.
There are studies with lower doses of nuts that show similar or even better results. In it, for example, they were people given 25 grams of almonds for just four weeks and they lowered their LDL cholesterol by about 6%. In another study, then consuming With just 10 grams of almonds per day, or just seven individual almonds per day, study participants experienced a 30% reduction in LDL over the same time period as baru nuts. Three times better LDL at half the dose with regular almonds, as you can see below and at 2:47 in my video Are Baruka nuts the healthiest nuts?.
The biggest reason for us hectare more certain about regular almonds than baru almonds is that studies have been done over and over again in more than a dozen randomized controlled trials, while in the only other baru nut cholesterol trial, researchers I establish no significant benefit for LDL cholesterol, even with the same 20-gram dose given over an even longer period of time—a period of eight weeks.
This is disappointing, but not the main reason I would suggest choosing other nuts instead of baru nuts. I would because we can’t take raw baru nuts. They contain certain compounds that must be inactivated by heat before we can eat them. The reason raw nuts hectare it is preferred because of advanced glycation end products (AGEs), so-called glucotoxins, which are known to contribute to increased oxidative stress and inflammation.
Glucotoxins are naturally present in uncooked animal foods, and cooking in dry heat such as grilling can make things worse. The three highest recorded levels were in bacon, grilled hot dogs, and grilled chicken skin — nothing comes close to that, not even Chicken McNuggets, as you can see below and at 3:50 in my video.
However, any food high in fat and protein will do create AGEs at fairly high temperatures. So, although plant foods tend to “contain relatively few AGEs, even after cooking,” there are some plant foods that are high in fat and protein. But, again, AGEs are not a problem at all with most plant foods. Look at the AGE content of boiled tofu (in a soup, for example), baked tofu, a raw apple, a baked apple, a veggie burger—I was surprised that veggie burgers are so low in AGEs, even when baked or fried—and nuts and seeds, which are in baked tofu, especially when I recommend this baked nut and seed butter whenever you have a choice. See below and at 4:33 in mine video.
Doctor’s note
In the Daily Dozen checklist, I recommend eating a quarter cup of nuts or seeds or two tablespoons of nut or seed butter each day. Why? See related posts below.
For those unfamiliar with advanced glycation end products (AGEs), check out the first two videos I did on them before: Glucotoxins and Avoid glucotoxins in food.
