Gain Weight because im under weight to my age
I plan on eating at least 100-200g of mixed nuts (peanuts, cashews, almonds) everyday (on top of regular diet) for the purpose of gaining weight. I was wondering, can eating too much nuts cause bad health side effects? I want go gain weight because im underweight for my age.
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Let's take a look at the three nuts mentioned (peanuts, cashews, almonds) on Nutritiondata to see what looks interesting.
Peanuts. 100 grams amounts to 567 Kcal. 49 grams fat, of which only 7 grams saturated. 16 grams carbohydrates of which 8 grams fiber and 4 grams sugar. A nice 26 grams protein. Peanuts have an outstanding amino acid profile making them an excellent protein source. Of the fat content, most of it is mono-unsaturated and a good deal poly-unsaturated. However, note that in 100 grams there's a whopping 15 grams of omega-6 fatty acids, yet only 3 mg of omega-3 fatty acids. Regarding vitamins you'll get a good dose of vitamin E, thiamin, niacin and folate; this is all pretty good. Regarding minerals there's good amounts of iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc copper and a hefty dose of manganese. All of this is pretty nice too, and would be especially welcome if you'd happen to combine your diet with weight training.
Onto cashews. 100 grams gives you 553 Kcal. 44 grams of fat, of which 8 saturated, 18 grams of protein (lower than peanuts) and a much higher carb content at 33 grams. Outstanding protein quality. 7.8 grams of omega-6 but only 62 mg of omega-3. A different vitamin profile from peanuts: high in vitamin K, thiamin and B6. Again good to have. As for minerals, you'll get iron, a lot of magnesium, good deal of phosphorus, some potassium, good deal of zinc, more copper than you need, nearly all the manganese you require in a day and some of the rare selenium.
Finally almonds. 575 Kcal per 100 gram serving. 49 grams of fat, of which only 4 saturated. 22 grams of carbohydrate (in between cashews and peanuts). 21 grams of protein. Nice amount of dietary fiber (12 grams of the 22 grams carbs). Great protein quality but less so than peanuts and cashews. 12 grams of omega-6 versus only 6 mg of omega-3. A lot of vitamin E and much riboflavin (good thing to have). A really nice overall mineral profile, with the important minerals all well represented and some spikes in magnesium, phosphorus, copper and manganese.
Nutritionally nuts and legumes are great food sources that tend to be under-represented in western diets. The balance of mostly unsaturated fats, carbohydrates and protein makes them great food to add onto a regular diet. Also packing a good deal of vitamins and minerals, they are a great choice of snack provided you don't get too excessive with sodium intake (salted varieties).
So onto the negatives. In some cases an excess of vitamins can be detrimental. Regarding the vitamins found in the above nuts I don't think you should worry about this, and not in the amounts found in them. Some values exceed the daily recommended intake but there's no reason to think anything is gonna exceed a daily upper limit. As for minerals, most of it is pretty useful and again doubtful you're gonna get a dangerous excess of anything. For example, you'd have to go through heroic amounts of cashews to get too much selenium. The one thing that doesn't look so good is the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio. Nuts are very high in omega-6 while giving you very little omega-3. Since the ratio of these two fatty acids is important and omega-6 already tends to be dominant in a western diet you might want to pay attention to that. A fish oil supplement could be useful, unless you already regularly eat good sources of omega-3 such as fatty fish.
Finally there's another matter, namely that of phytoestrogens. Particularly the type known as lignans tend to be high in nuts and seeds. These are compounds that can affect your hormonal system, either by activating or blocking receptor sites. Undesirable for men, possibly beneficial for women. However, the effects in humans are not well established, perhaps somewhat controversial and the fear of these possibly greatly overstated. Studies haven't really shown significant effects thus far. To be honest, I have the feeling that some folks, particularly those in the bodybuilding community, are focusing on things such as avoiding soy for absolutely minor effects while doing their bodies much graver injustices by other means. I wouldn't worry too much about it if I were you.
So in conclusion, not only would the nuts you mentioned be a convenient source of calories (and lots of them) but also a very healthy one. The main thing requiring some attention is to keep that omega-6 to omega-3 balance in check, introducing some additional omega-3 to the diet.
Finally, apart from nuts, you may also want to consider (whole) milk. If you could happen to find good quality milk obtained from pastured cattle, feeding on grass instead of grains, that'd be perfect. Grass-fed cattle produces milk and meat that has a much better omega-3/6 ratio than grain-fed cattle. Which is logical, because grass is what happens to be cows' natural source of food. The same goes for butter.
Another 500-1000kcal coming from natural unprocessed food is unlikely to have negative side effects. I would be more concerned with the amount of calories you are about to start introducing to your diet. If you don't reduce anything else (which you probably will, subconsciously), 500-1000kcal is quite a huge increase. Start with 50-100gr and further increase if it seems to help you get closer to your goals.
If you are extremely cautious - have in mind that peanuts contain large amounts of linoleic acid (omega-6) that should be limited in consumption (given that most foods contain them, while not providing any omega-3). It's ok to have them in some quanties but sticking more towards almonds in the long run is better.
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