What are the most nutrient-dense oils, nuts and seeds?
Nov 5th, 2009 by Giselle
Fats have received such bad reputation that individuals attempting to lose weight quickly often try to eliminate this food group totally from their diets. Consequently, their intakes of omega 6, omega 3 fatty acids and vitamin E become marginal. Let’s find out how we can control our fats intake without compromising our intakes of these nutrients. This article examines which nuts and seeds deliver the greatest density of these nutrients and how we can make them a part of our weight management diet.
The tables below list the food items in order of decreasing density of each nutrient:
| Good plant sources of omega 6 fatty acids |
| Walnuts |
| Sunflower margarine |
| Sunflower oil |
| Sunflower seeds |
| Pine nuts |
| Sesame Seeds |
| Brazil nuts |
| Good plant sources of omega 3 fatty acids |
| Walnuts |
| Canola oil |
| Canola margarine |
| Sunflower margarine |
| Good plant sources of vitamin E |
| Sunflower seeds |
| Sunflower oils |
| Almonds |
| Hazel nuts |
In conclusion, for great nutrient-dense plant sources of omega 6, omega 3 fatty acids and vitamin E, have a couple of handfuls of walnuts, sunflower seeds and almonds daily!
References
Commonwealth Department of Health and Aging (Aust), Ministry of Health (NZ) and National Health and Medical Research Council. Nutrient Reference Values for Australia and New Zealand. 2006.
Shrapnel B, Baghurst K. Adequacy of essential fatty acid, vitamin D and vitamin E intake: implications for the ‘core’ and ‘extras’ food group concept of the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating. 2007; 64: 7885.
Shrapnel B. The importance of nutrient density in implementing recommendations for fats. Nutr Diet 2007; 64(Suppl.1): S40.
