Can eating too many nuts be bad for health?

[andyjohnsonman]

I started a Keto diet last week and due to the lack of carbs i find it hard to fill up and not be hungry. To counter this I bought a 2.5kg bag of cashew nuts that I eat whenever I feel hungry, however today I noticed this is causing diarrhea so was wondering if eating too many nuts can be bad or if my body is just adjusting to this new diet?

[Michael569]

It could put your omega 6s through the roof so make sure to balance it with good omega 3 sources such as flax and chia seeds but otherwise the only risk is that it makes you fatter because 100g of cashew is probably around 650 calories.

I'd probably shuffle few types of nuts around to get a variety of nutrients.

Also, finally (i know this is none of my concern but I'm going to say it anyway) make sure not to follow something that may be hard to sustain long-term and consider long term impacts of any diet you follow (e.g. slowed metabolism and damaged microbiome). I think the question is "could you do this for the rest of your life?

[andyjohnsonman]

Yea thats a good point. Im eating loads of cashew nuts! They are un roasted so i'm wondering if its down to that as apparently truly raw cashews have toxins int them from poison ivy but that is doubtful because even though the nuts say un roasted apparently most go through roasting before taking the shell off and the ones that are roasted have a second session of roasting.

[Javfly33]

Careful with nuts. I don´t think the human body is prepared to eat nuts in large quantities as a regular thing.

I used to do Keto too and I would eat a shit ton of nuts in the morning. I ended up having the worst stomach aches and pain and nausea ever. Needless to say now I can´t basically eat a single nut. Since just seeing them makes me sick.

PD: Just read you are talking about cashews. I haven´t find that difficult to digest those. Also pistacchios are probably the most easy on the stomach too. My main issue was with walnuts. Those are the ones which I can´t eat now

Edited January 10, 2021 by Javfly33

[NikoleJennes]

be careful with cashew, not more than 20 cashew for a week, this is MY advice, I am eating it for 4 years in a row almost everyday, and my kidneys are going mad sometimes. This is pure protein, do not mix it with eggs and meat! 

[kozakor]

My nutritionist said that the daily value of nuts is about 5-10 grams.

[Michael569]

@kozakor 5 grams is like 1 walnut l. you sure he didn't mean 15 nuts per day? I usually advice people 30-80g per day depending on their goals

[kozakor]

30-80 g is a lot. exactly 5-15 g
so my nutritionist said

[The0Self]

They have lots of copper. Zinc picolinate or high zinc foods can solve it. Nuts have a lot of polyunsaturated fat which is very likely anti-thyroid if eaten in amounts way out of proportion to saturated fat. They also have a lopsided amino acid profile and that can have psychoactive effects if they're eaten without other protein sources to compensate.

I would not recommend keto unless you have health problems -- mainly insulin resistance. Use keto (with high protein and resistance training) to reduce visceral fat, for no more than 6 months, in order to get your insulin response healthier and then you won't get high BG after high carbs meals. High carb is fine; low carb is fine... NO carb and very low carb (<125g/d) is not optimal for health, and may actually not even be safe. Especially in the long-term.

Edited March 6, 2021 by The0Self

[Michael569]

On 06/03/2021 at 5:59 PM, The0Self said:

Nuts have a lot of polyunsaturated fat which is very likely anti-thyroid if eaten in amounts way out of proportion to saturated fat. They also have a lopsided amino acid profile and that can have psychoactive effects if they're eaten without other protein sources to compensate.

I dunno man this sounds like one of these things where mechanistic data are not a representation of real situation. Consumption of nuts is associated with a reduction of all causes of mortality, reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer and improve brain function, fertility etc. The argument against PUFAs due to thyroid hormone conversion is probably based on some invitro studies, I'd love to see some systemic analysis of hypothyroid patients linking their thyroid condition to excessive PUFA consumption 

[Village]

Phytates, lectins, omega-6, pesticides (organic or inorganic ones). Really no reason to eat nuts at all.

[Thought Art]

personally love nuts.

Keto seems really dangerous to me. Not sure why anyone would think its a good idea.

Edited March 7, 2021 by Thought Art

[Michael569]

15 hours ago, Village said:

Phytates, lectins

no evidence of harm whatsoever. Fear of antinutrients is based on some silly invitro science, nothing to do with real life. Consuming foods containing lectins and phytates is associated with reduced all-cause mortality from all sources. Btw did you know that even meat can contain antinutrients? Oh and so can dairy and eggs. 

15 hours ago, Village said:

omega-6

you need to consume Omega 6s as well as Omega 3s. Let's not vilify all fats. Would you rather we consume lard and tallow? I know your opinion on nutritional science is that it is load of rubbish but otherwise we are pulling stuff out of our assess

If you take 100 people, put them in lab, feed them high saturated  fat, low-fibre diet for 3 months you will see a rapid acceleration of cardiovascular disease marker and markers of systemic inflammation. Naturally, we don't have such studies because who would survive locked in lab... 

15 hours ago, Village said:

pesticides

Have you ever seen a walnut tree? It is fucking huge. How are you gonna spray that through the year? Walnut takes 10-15 years to grow before it gives you first nuts. You can spray blueberry bushes ofcourse but most trees are not sprayed that heavily simply because of their sheer size. Same for cherries, the cherry tree can grow to be 15 meters big ass gigantic tree. Once the tree achieves a certain age, the berries just grow every year (unless something happens). My grandparents have an orchard, I've seen those trees blossom my whole life giving a shit load of cherries, walnuts, hazelnuts, plums, pears, apples. You can grow IMMENSE amount of fruits & nuts without needing to use fertilisers. I mean really really immense. Enough to feed a small village (from single orchard). 

[The0Self]

5 hours ago, Michael569 said:

If you take 100 people, put them in lab, feed them high saturated  fat, low-fibre diet for 3 months you will see a rapid acceleration of cardiovascular disease marker and markers of systemic inflammation. Naturally, we don't have such studies because who would survive locked in lab...

This is probably true, but particularly provided they're in a weekly/etc net calorie surplus. If one doesn't resistance train (which changes protein needs which would need to be accounted for), one could argue they already don't care about their health (if they only knew, anyway) because that's probably the most effective way to extend one's life, so that would have to be accounted for. Saturated fat is perfectly healthy, and it can and maybe even should be consumed in amounts that vastly exceed PUFA intake... However, this is only optimal as part of a diet already quite low in total fat. You only "need" around 1g of n-3 and 6g of n-6 a day (though total fat under 20g / day is associated with increased injury rate), and that's just to prevent the state of PUFA deficiency, which is characterized by increased metabolic rate and reduced inflammation via increased T3 conversion and increased production of the anti-inflammatory mead acid from saturated fat. The increased metabolic rate in deficiency means one has to compensate with more food if they are to stay at the same weight... And to meet their increased micronutrient needs -- though that/this last sentence is not conclusive by any means, just my intuition along with a holistic interpretation of the data as it stands.

High saturated fat and low fiber are mainly associated with health problems in the extremes, and in the presence of health problems; insulin resistance, and often excess fructose consumption... and lack of weight training, and already-excessive visceral fat. If one eats a balanced diet of whole foods, with adequate protein, and weight training, and with low body fat content (if there is excess body fat, getting rid of that asap with the underlined text + a calorie deficit via eating highly satiating foods such as potatoes; eggs; Greek yogurt), then there really just isn't a whole lot more one can do to increase their chances of having a life expectancy several standard deviations above the mean -- the fiber content of their diet will be largely irrelevant.

Edited March 8, 2021 by The0Self

[Michael569]

6 minutes ago, The0Self said:

one doesn't resistance train (which increases protein needs which would need to be accounted for), one could argue they already don't care about their health (if they only knew, anyway)

bear in mind we are not talking about members of the forum (mostly), this applies to your regular Joe who doesn't exercise, who doesn't eat fibre and who eats excessive amounts of SFA and processed carbohydrates. Now imagine this dude hears "saturated fats is not a problem" for him this translates into: eat all the bacon and beef you'd like. You can say "saturated fats are fine" to people who eat 50 grams of fibre per day but not to people who get the majority of their calories from shitfood. 

We can discuss amongst us where the cutoff point for SFA is and why different meta analyses produce different risk ratios and what they did and didn't control for and whether linoleic acid or arachidonic acid plays a role in heart disease but in the end the important thing is, what is average person with close to zero nutritional knowledge going to do.

The advice these people are getting these days is extremely conflicting and for 80% of these people eating fewer animal products and eating more vegetables, nuts and legumes are beneficial. That is unless they have an eating disorder but here you once again enter the region of oversaturation with information rather than lack therof. 

[The0Self]

@Michael569 I think "the answer" for the cohort you're referring to is probably just resistance training + protein sparing modified fast if they're overweight, to get their insulin sensitivity to skyrocket and then they'd be like 100x more resilient to any harmful dietary habits. But yeah, if they aren't going to do that it would be helpful for them to know saturated fat is certainly harmful in excess, as is any kind of fat -- one of many reasons I have for never recommending keto unless it's specifically for the goal of losing fat, in a calorie deficit, for less than 6 months and never again. And even then, I'd say anyone who isn't weight training (or if they're unable, doing something that resembles it -- any load bearing activity involving at least one activity of each 1. pushing, 2. pulling, and 3. leg-dominant movement) getting adequate protein (easy, but making sure it is done), and eating whole foods (and losing fat if they need to)... is likely missing out on a longer life. And if they're doing keto without also doing those, they're wasting their time.

And of course if one is so unhealthy as to be ravaged by cholesterol, fiber can help them.

Edited March 8, 2021 by The0Self