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Californian flavour
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Eating almonds is not really bad for your heart.
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MUGHLAI CUISINE is famous for its use of almonds and almond milk in meat and chicken dishes. Strikingly rich in fat, the sweet almond is also a common ingredient in many Indian sweetmeats. Blanched, boiled, or roasted, the nut is equally delicious, and it is ubiquitous in confectionery items, pastries and puddings, and in the traditional European candy marzipan.
The almond tree is native to South-western Asia, but California now leads the world in production, with nearly 80 per cent of the world's crop grown there. The two main varieties of the nut are the sweet almond and the bitter almond. The latter is rich in hydrocyanic acid and benzaldehyde. With the cyanide chemically extracted out, bitter almond oil is an excellent flavouring agent in liqueurs and food.
One of the earliest mentions of the almond is in the Bible; not surprising, considering it is one of the oldest cultivated crops. The Silk Route from China to Greece, Asia Minor and the Middle East was also in some ways "The Almond Road". The Arabs settling in the Iberian Peninsula planted almond trees there, and that soon set off Europe's fascination with the fatty nut. Europe soon integrated it into its fertility rites and wedding rituals. One tradition that survives to this day is the gift of white sugarcoated almonds in weddings.
Shelled nuts are remarkably calorie-rich, which probably gave rise to the widespread French and Indian beliefs that eating too many almonds adds weight to the breasts, which in turn ensured its presence in many breast enhancement creams. About 100 gm of the shelled nuts contain about 576 calorie, with nearly 80 per cent of the calories coming from fat. But it is not all bad news: 72 per cent of the fat calories are monounsaturated fat, 21 per cent is from polyunsaturated fat, and only seven percent is from the dreaded saturated fat. The former two are actually good for the heart and blood vessels, but only if eaten in small amounts.
Seventy-five gms of the shelled (not blanched) nuts provide nearly 100 per cent of our daily Vitamin E needs. There is as much protein in almonds as there is in meat — although, being plant protein, it is not a complete protein. And just one-third (39 gm) of a cup of nuts contains nearly seven per cent of the daily requirement of iron, a tenth of the calcium requirement, and nearly a fifth of the daily requirement of dietary fibre.
Eating almonds is not necessarily bad for the heart or the figure, provided you eat them shelled and in small serving sizes. And exercise strict control over your intake of almond sweets and sweetmeats, and indulge your love of Mughlai cuisine only on truly special occasions.
RAJIV. M
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