Hazelnut is the kind of the nut from the hazel tree that right at the moment become a very popular commodity in around the world. Hazelnuts are produced in large scale of commercial quantities in Greece, Italy, UK, and the half part of the USA. So, hazelnut si largely produced in Turkey, since this country has approximately 75% of hazelnut’s worldwide production. We bet that you already know that the hazelnut will bring you various health benefits for your body. Well, you’re absolutely right. Here are the lists of the health benefits that you could get from consuming hazelnut
- Healthier Cardiovascular
The first benefit that you can get from hazelnut is that it can maintain the health of your cardiovascular system. So, hazelnut can maintain your cardiovascular health because it contains oleic acids, which are an unsaturated fats. This oleic acid would be really helpful to lowering the LDL cholesterol or bad cholesterol in the body and in fact, it can increase the amount of HDL cholesterol or good cholesterol in your body.
Furthermore, hazelnut contain a high amount of magnesium, a kind of mineral that will be very beneficial to regulate the amount of calcium in your body and thus, it will prevent the excessive amount of calcium. Calcium indeed is very good for your body, but the excessive amount of calcium in the body will make your heart contracts in a long time and it will make you feel the heart beat irregularly. Sufficient amount of calcium in the body will make your heart become more relaxed.
- Regulate the Activity of Muscle
This benefit of hazelnut is quite similar with what already explained above. So, as you already know, hazelnut will release the magnesium, which will regulate the amount of calcium in your body. When your body has a proper amount of calcium, this will allow your muscle to contract when it is really needed and also, it will allow your muscle to relax when they’re no longer needed.
Well, this mechanism will protect yourself from the discomfort associated with your bone such as spasm, cramps, or muscle tension. In addition to that, there is a study that evidence the proper amount of magnesium can improves the health of your bone.
- Healthier Joint and Bone
This benefit also relates to the benefit of the magnesium that contained in the hazelnut. For your information, hazelnut can release the high amounts of magnesium, which then will be stored in your body when you have more than enough magnesium in the body.
Thus, the stored magnesium will be very beneficial sometimes when you’re facing some problems with emergency deficiency, for example when you’re having an injury. As you already know, magnesium will be beneficial to keep the health of the bone.
In addition to that, hazelnut also contains rich amounts of manganese. This manganese will be beneficial to improve the density of your bone and also will fight against many diseases, such as osteoporosis and osteomalacia.
- Maintain Digestive Health
As already mentioned above, hazelnut also contains a pretty high amount of manganese. Beside it will improve the density of your bones, it also has the other benefits. So, manganese is a mineral that will stimulate the activity f enzymes and also become a catalyst on the synthesis of fatty acids and cholesterol.
This manganese will also stimulate the nutrient metabolism from the food that you just ate. After the manganese stimulate the metabolism process, let the fiber that also contained in the hazelnut do the rest. The fiber will make sure that the proper movement of the nutrients in the digestive tract and thus, it will protect the health of your digestive system.
- Optimize Nervous System
Well, hazelnut would be very beneficial too to keep the nervous system functioning properly. So, hazelnut also contains high amount of Vitamin B6, which is an essential vitamin to stimulate the production of amino acids. The fact is, your nervous system needs the sufficient amount of amino acids in order to keep functioning properly.
Furthermore, the addition of Vitamin B6 would also be very essential to stimulate the production of myelin, which is very important in order the improve the efficiency of the impulses. Also, this myelin is a very good addition to stimulate the synthesis of melatonin, serotonin, and epinephrine.
- Prevent Cancer
This is probably one of the greatest benefits that you could get from consuming the hazelnut. Hazelnut turns out to be a very good food to prevent you from various types of cancer.
As already mentioned above, the hazelnut will provide your body the addition of manganese. This manganese is also very essential to stimulate the production of an antioxidant enzyme in the mitochondria which will prevent you from cancer.
Also, many studies have already conducted and the result of the study proves that hazelnut could protect you from cancer. Virginia State University suspects that hazelnut has antiproliferation effect which means that it can inhibit the cancer cells from multiplying.
- Prevent Aging
Hazelnut would be very beneficial too to keep your skin glowing and also keep the freshness of your skin so that you’ll look younger than your actual age. So, hazelnut has a combination of Vitamin C and Vitamin E, which are the powerful source of antioxidant. These antioxidants will fight against free radicals and protect you from the signs of premature aging that mainly caused by free radicals.
- Good For Pregnant Women
Hazelnut is also very beneficial for pregnant women because hazelnut contains a lot of nutrients that will be very crucial to give the nutrition to the infants. In addition to that hazelnut also contains folic acid, which is widely known for its ability to prevent and protect every woman during their pregnancy from the neural tube defect. Also, the folic acid would help your body to stimulate the growth of the tissue during the pregnancy period.
- Prevent Cholesterol
Do you know that hazelnut would also be very beneficial to reduce the cholesterol? Well, thi is the true fact. So, if you’re on a diet, and you eat approximately 40 grams of hazelnut each day, on a daily routine, you will be more likely to have a decreased amount of LDL cholesterol, which is bad cholesterol, and have an increase in HDL cholesterol, which is the good cholesterol.
In the matter of fact, a study evidence that eating 1 gram of hazelnut per kilogram of your body weight could reduce the levels of LDL bad cholesterol.
- Excellent for Vegetarians
Hazelnut is also a perfect source of foods for the people who are included as the vegetarians. The main thing on why the hazelnut would be the perfect choice for vegetarians is that the amount of its protein.
So, basically the vegetarians wouldn’t eat animal based foods, but the protein is mainly comeing from the animal base foods. Hazelnut turns out to be the perfect solution for this problem since hazelnut contains 15 grams of protein per 100 grams.
- Rich Source of Antioxidant
Hazelnut is commonly known for its high source of powerful antioxidants. In fact, the hazelnut is one of the best nuts if you see it from the amount of the antioxidant. Also, hazelnut is one of the best antioxidant source among all of the foods that classified as Superfoods. So, it is no doubt that hazelnut would protect your body from the harmful free radicals and will protect the wellness of your body all day long.
- Rich Source of Vitamin E
Hazelnut is also one of the best foods as the source of the Vitamin E. So, the 100 grams of hazelnut contains approximately 15% of your recommended daily intake of Vitamin E. The sufficient amount of Vitamin E will ensure that you’ll not get any disease associated with anemia. In addition to that, Vitamin E is also beneficial to prevent you from any disease because it will boost your overall immune system too.
- Rich Source of Iron
Aside from the great amount of the Vitamin E that you could get by consuming hazelnut, this nut is also bringing you other beneficial nutrients. Consuming hazelnut means that you’ll get approximately 30% of the recommended daily intake of iron in the body. Well, that’s pretty high isn’t it? Iron would also will protect you from anemia and have a responsibility to carry the rich-oxygen blood from the lung to the other parts of your body.
- Rich Source of Protein
As already mentioned above, hazelnut will be a perfect solution for vegetarians who are avoiding the protein that comes from animal based foods. It is revealed that the hazelnuts are commonly known for its high source of protein. By consuming the hazelnut, you’ll get at least 17 grams of protein, which is very beneficial to keep your memory sharp and gain the better concentration throughout the day. Eating hazelnut would be a good addition in your diet also.
- Rich Source of Vitamin K
Another nutrients that you could get at the highest amount from consuming the hazelnut is Vitamin K. This Vitamin K played an important role in the part of your body. This vitamin, alongside with iron, would be extremely important to ensure that your body have a sufficient amount of blood and thus, it will protect you when you’re having a chronic injury or have an excessive bleeding. In addition to that, this Vitamin K will be beneficial too to increase and stimulate the absorption of calcium in your body.
- Good Source of Proanthocyanidin
Well, do you know that the hazelnut is the highest source of proanthocyanidin compared with any other nuts? So, among any other nuts, hazelnut has the highest source of proanthocyanidin, which is a compound that will contribute to the astringent flavor in any foods. This compound has also played an important role too for the health of your body since this proanthocyanidin could protect your body from any disease associated with urinary tract infections and blood clotting, which will lead you to cardiovascular and brain disease.
- Contol the Blood Pressure
Hazelnut is also would be very helpful to protect your body from any disease associated with the elevation of blood pressure, such as hypertension, stroke and paralysis because this hazelnut contains a pretty high amount of potassium. When you’re consuming hazelnut, you’ll get approximately 193 grams of potassium. Potassium is an essential mineral that can regulate, controlling, and lowering your blood pressure at the same time. Because of that reason, this hazelnut would be beneficial to maintain the levels of your blood pressure.
- Healthy Foods For Diet
When you’re on your diet, sometimes you couldn’t resist the temptation from grabbing an unhealthy snack that really efficient to boost your appetite so quickly and you’ll eat it again and again which then resulting from the weight gain and the failure on your diet. So, based on that reason, especially when you just want to have a light food, you can grab the hazelnut rather than an unhealthy snack. This is because 1 Oz of hazelnut would give you 176 calories with 3 grams of dietary fibers, which without a doubt will make your stomach feel satisfied longer.
- Great Amount of Good Fat
This is another advantage on why you need to consume this healthy hazelnut. Aside from the nutrients that already mentioned above, the hazelnut would also give you the special benefits. Yes, hazelnut contains high amounts of monounsaturated fats, which is approximately 79% of total fats, and just have a total of 4% of saturated fats. This high amount of monounsaturated fats in hazelnut will bring you a lot of health benefits, including the lower risk of cholesterol, heart disease, stroke, and also reduced your belly fat!
- Ensure Proper Body Functions
Hazelnut will also bring you this special advantage. Eating hazelnut on a daily routine will ensure that every part of your body works on their own function properly. This is mainly because of the copper and manganese compound that contained in hazelnut.
So, eating a hazelnut will bring you approximately 15% of recommended daily intake of copper and 21% of manganese. Copper played an important role to ensure the proper body function because it is a part of most enzyme in your body, while manganese will be important for carbohydrate metabolism.
- Wound Healing
Do you know that hazelnut will also become very efficient weapon to heal your open wounds? Well, you could get these benefits when you have a hazelnut oil. When you already have the hazelnut oil, you just can rub it in the area of the wound an you’ll experience the speedy recovery from the wounds because hazelnut have an astringent effect, which is widely known for its ability to recover many wounds. Also, the main reason on why hazelnut is very beneficial for your wound is because it contains arginine, which is an amino acid that would be very good to healing your wound.
- Boost Your Immunity
As already mentioned above, hazelnut contains a high amount of various nutrients such as manganese, magnesium, potassium, and calcium which without a doubt would support the good flow of your blood in your body. The common reason on why your immune system could be boosted is because the perfect flow and circulation of the blood in your body. Aside from that, this hazelnut would not bring you a lot of saturated fat which will obstruct the blood flow when it is already accumulated.
- Alleviate Stress and Anxiety
Hazelnut will also be beneficial to alleviate the feeling of stress and anxiety that commonly happen to the urban people nowadays. So, hazelnut contains omega-3- fatty acids and Vitamin B complex which is commonly known for its ability to overcome various psychological problems like depression, stress, and anxiety feeling. The Vitamin B complex will be very beneficial too to stimulate the synthesize of serotonin in the neurotransmitter. So, when you’re so depressed about anything, grab some hazelnuts and let this food do the rest for you.
- Good for Gain Some Weight
For some of you who feel that you’re so skinny, you could also eat hazelnut for gain some weight in a healthy way of course because hazelnut contains a good amount of monounsaturated fats, which are the healthy fats for your body. You need to eat it on a daily routine, and take it wisely. Remember to not over-consume it since taking everything excessively will bring you a lot of negative effects.
- Improve Fertility
Hazelnut is also might improve the fertility so that it is a good news for every married couple who want to have a kid. It might not as potent as sprouts to improve the fertility, but hazelnut will stimulate insulin sensitivity and reduce the sugar in the blood, which enables you to get the high quality of sperm. In fact the hazelnut tree is considered as the symbol of fertility by the ancient societies.
- Hydrated Your Skin
As already mentioned above, this hazenut also contains a high amount of Vitamin E. This Vitamin E will play an important role to help you to gain the healthy skin. So, the Vitamin E will bring your skin some nutrition and also will moisturize your skin too, which will make your skin become hydrated and silky, without too much greasiness. So, as the result, you can show your healthy, glowing skin to other people because the healthy skin can boost people’s confidence too.
- Fight Against Acne
Well, you might be surprised that hazelnut would also give the special benefits for treating your acne. So, you could make the full advantage of this hazelnut benefit by turn this food into a scrub. The main cause on why this hazelnut would be beneficial for your acne is because of its powerful antioxidants that will fight against free radicals, which are would be very harmful for your skin, including promotes and stimulate the activity of acne bacteria called Propinonibacterium acnes.
- Treat Damaged Hair
Hazelnut could also be very beneficial to keep the health of your hair too. So, as already mentioned before, hazelnut contains Vitamin E, which is an essential vitamin to moisturize your skin and your hair too. So, if you’re experiencing the dry hair, you could easily apply it on your scalp. If you let the dry hair untreated, you’ll be most likely to suffer from the damaged hair. So, what are you waiting for? This hazelnut will protect your hair all day long.
- Strengthen Your Hair
This benefit is closely related to the benefit that already mentioned above, so the hazelnut will bring your hair a lot of benefits, such as prevent the dry hair and also it could moisturize your hair too. This effects without a doubt will boost the strength of your scalp hair. Whenever you applied the hazelnut in your hair overnight, it will strengthen your hair from the roots.
- Good For Newborn Baby
Well, during the pregnancy, the most essential thing that the women would like to consume is the foods which have a high amount of folic acids. As already mentioned above, the folic acids will bring you the proper nutritions that you need during the pregnancy. In fact, the sufficient amount of folic acid will prevent many diseases associated with unhealthy pregnancy, such as neural tube defects, for example. Folic acids also very essential for the proper growth of the infants. In the matter of fact, you just need 30 grams of hazelnut will fulfill about 17% of the recommended daily intake of folic acids.
- Keep You Safe from UV
Do you know that the hazelnut will also bring you a lot of advantages for your skin to prevent the harmful UV rays? Yes, you absolutely can rely on the hazelnut to protect your skin from the harmful UV rays. In the matter of fact, the hazelnut, if you turns it into an essential oil, will act as a sunscreen when you’re applying it in your skin.
- Good For Menstrual Cramps
This is a good news for the women who sometimes have some issues related to their menstrual period, especially with the cramps. If you’re often to suffer from cramps during the menstrual period, you need to consume it as soon as possible because it contains high amounts of magnesium, calcium, and Vitamin E that can relieve the pain caused by the cramps and these nutrients will also help you to gain the better menstruation cycle too.
Consumption Tips on Hazelnut
Well, after you already know everything about the health benefits of hazelnut, we bet that you’re becoming interested to give it a try, or if you’re already become addicted of it, just continue it. Some of you might wonder about how to pick the good hazelnut and how to consume it. So, in the list below, we already provide it for you, so that you can get the full advantage of it. Here are the consumption tips on hazelnut.
How to Pick It and Store it?
- When you’re at the grocery stores or on the market and you’re planning to buy the hazelnut, you need to take a look at the physical appearance of the hazelnut. If you’re buying hazelnut with shell, make sure that the shell doesn’t have any holes or cracks
- After you purchased it, you need to store them in an airtight container and don’t store it under the direct sunlight. Store the hazelnut in the refrigerator would be the best way and it can last for up to 4 months in the refrigerator.
- Make sure before you want to consume it, bring the hazelnut back into the room temperature.
Various Tips on Consuming the Hazelnut
- The first tips is, you can eat it raw, without any addition at all.
- You can roast the raw hazelnut and you’ll not miss any health benefits that the hazelnut could offer to your body.
- You can make some smoothies with the hazelnut. So, you could blend the mixture of milk, sugar, fruits, and hazelnut, and voila, you can have a healthy beverage.
Hazelnut Warning and Precaution
So, you after you already know about the health benefits of hazelnut alongside with its consumption tips, you might need to take a look at the warnings related to the hazelnut. Well, the good news is the hazelnut doesn’t have any specific side effects. But you need to consider that if you’re having some allergies about any nuts, you have to avoid to consuming it since if you insist to consume it whenever you have an allergic with the nuts, this will lead you to the life threatening problem called anaphylaxis.