The science of calorie counting has always been inexact, but scientists are discovering that their calculations may be way off, particularly when it comes to more energy-dense foods like almonds. The USDA recently announced the results of a new study which finds that almonds have about 20 percent fewer calories than previously believed!
According to The Salt, this new study suggests that people may not absorbing all the fat or calories found in nuts. When scientists tested the feces (sorry, but that's the way it is!) of people eating a controlled diet with almonds versus those eating a diet without any nuts, they found a higher fat content in feces of the nut-heavy diet, which caused them to conclude there's a "disconnect between the gross energy found in an almond and the energy our bodies actually absorb"—meaning, our bodies may rid themselves of some of the fat found in almonds, which essentially makes their calorie count, or the amount of energy we actually receive from them, lower overall.
These are just preliminary results, but since we've always known nuts are good for you, you should continue to enjoy them with perhaps a little less worry about how many calories you're consuming!
Read More: If Almonds Bring You Joy, Enjoy More For Fewer Calories at NPR's The Salt
Related: Recipe: Roasted Eggplant Salad with Smoked Almonds & Goat Cheese
(Image: Emily Ho)
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Well what does that mean for the health benefits? Many of the substances that we eat nuts *for* are fat soluble!
Huh. I wonder if that holds for other nuts.
I really wish I had not read this while menu-planning online: "When scientists tested the feces of people eating a controlled diet with almonds versus those eating a diet without any nuts, they found a higher fat content in feces of the nut-heavy diet..."
Yeah, the end result of this post is to make me like almonds less—bad pictures in my head. Bummer.
Wait, why would you like almonds less? Because you realized that you poop them out?
Guess you can't eat anything now. Everybody poops.
Word, EVANB. Word.
God I hope that is true. I hate blowing a bunch of Weight Watchers points on a handful of stinkin almonds. We're supposed to be encouraged to eat nuts!
EVANB, of course. But I usually don't explicitly connect the two while I'm eating. Kind of like conversations my mother used to stop during dinner, and with good reason.