Chestnuts is not just your average, everyday nut. It contains a number of important health benefit that include their ability to improve digestive health, prevents diabetes, cardiovascular health, and lower blood pressure. Also, chestnuts increase cognition and prevent chronic illnesses.
Chestnuts are a delicious and healthy treat, either roasted or cooked in soups, other recipes, and have considerable nutritional value.
Health Benefits of Chestnuts:
1. Controls Blood Pressure
When it comes to lowering blood pressure, some minerals are as essential as potassium. Potassium controls water movement within your body, and it also functions as a vasodilator, thereby, increasing blood flow and releasing the tension on constricted blood vessels and arteries. This reduction in blood pressure can help boost your overall cardiovascular health, while also lessening your risk for heart attacks and stroke.
2. Digestive Health
Chestnuts has a high fiber content. Dietary fiber comes in the form of insoluble and soluble. Soluble gets absorbed in water, then forms a gel-like consistency in the intestines. This type helps in reducing cholesterol and stabilizes blood-sugar levels. While, insoluble fiber creates bulk in your stool, then helps it pass through the system quickly. This helps in reducing the risk for constipation and intestinal complications scuh as diverticulosis, which is a condition where small pockets on the intestinal wall lining become inflamed.
A 3-ounce serving of roasted chestnuts has about 4 grams of fiber, while nuts have predominately insoluble fiber.
3. Heart Health
Most people think of fats as a bad thing, which is to be burned off when on a diet, but in reality, your body needs a number of other fats to normally function. These good fats, that are found in high concentrations in chestnuts, reduce inflammation throughout the body, help to balance cholesterol, and lower the risk of atherosclerosis and blood clots building up in your body.
All of this lowers your risk of heart attack, stroke, and coronary heart diseases to a greater extent. Also, chestnut is a rich source of potassium, which is very important for the heart. As per the British Medical Journal, increased potassium intake lowers your risk of stroke and reduces blood pressure in people with hypertension .
4. Improve Brain Function
Brain cognition and function are improved in various ways through the consumption of chestnuts. Chestnuts are rich in the B family vitamins (that includes riboflavin, folate, and thiamine), which are directly associated to proper neurological function and development, according to a study cited in The Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging.
Also, the potassium present in chestnuts can help increase blood flow to the brain, and promote good nervous system health, thereby increasing retention, concentration, and memory.
5. Prevents Diabetes
Many people are not aware of the significant role that dietary fiber can play in the prevention, regulation, and management of diabetes. Foods that are high in dietary fiber, such as chestnuts, are considered a low glycemic food, that means that they cause blood sugar to rise slowly, as compared to high glycemic foods. This can help in preventing the drops and spikes in blood sugar that can be dangerous for diabetic patients, and are most often precursors to the development of diabetes in those currently unaffected.
Sources:
Organicfacts
Livestrong
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