The new health guidelines recommends to eat every day a portion(unsalted) nuts. Nuts have many positive effects on your body. Studies have shown that nut consumption lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease, improves the glycemic control* in people with type II diabetes mellitus and lowers the risk of getting hypertension.
This positive effects are due to the nutrients nuts contain. They provide proteins, iron, magnesium and B vitamines. Furthermore notes provide beneficial nutrients as fiber and polyunsaturated fatty acids (healthy fats).
Here an overview of the minerals in nuts :
Nuts suit well in a vegetarian/vegan diet because they contain lots of proteins and healthy fats.
* The glycemic index (GI) measures how a carbohydrate-containing food raises blood glucose.
For example a food with a high GI raises blood glucose more than a food with a medium or low GI. To give you an example:
Low GI foods: most fruits, legumes, muesli, sweet potato, lentils.
High GI foods: white bread, corn flakes, pineapple, shortgrain white rice.
The GI of a food is different when eaten alone than it is when combined with other foods! So when you are eat high GI food, you can combine it with other low GI foods to balance out the effect on blood glucose.
For example: yoghurt (low GI) with apple (low GI) and cornflakes (high GI) or even better: oats (low GI).
Fit and Food 