There's finally a spotlight shining on this superfood. Here's what you need to know.
Good-for-you
snacks are hard to come by. Usually they're either fried, sugared, or
filled with artificial ingredients that you can't even pronounce. But
there's a superfood on the snack shelf that's begging for some
attention: the tiger nut.
[post_ads]The name itself is a bit
misleading, as tiger nuts aren't actually nuts, but rather tiny tubers
(aka root vegetables). They have a mild nutty, earthy, and sweet flavor,
and a slightly chewy texture. Their appearance is likened to that of a
shriveled garbanzo bean, and—bonus!—they're super-filling, low in
calories, and chock-full of resistant starch. Tiger nuts have been
around for a while, though. In fact, they made up 80 percent of our
paleo ancestors' diets (though we don't want to think about the other things in the original paleo diet). They were even found in the tombs of ancient Egyptians.
But
if they've been around for so long, why are they all of a sudden
getting so much of the spotlight? Well, you can thank the
Kardashians—Khloé and Kourtney have been seen munching on them a time or
two on Keeping Up With the Kardashians.
Unlike
most starches (your usual bread and pasta), the resistant starch found
in target nuts act more like a fiber. "Resistant starch passes through
the stomach and small intestine without being digested," says Gina
Consalvo, R.D. "[It] may even help you lose weight by reducing blood sugar spikes and keeping you full longer than other foods with the same number of calories."
Registered
dietitian Ashley Koff also vouches for the veggie. "Tiger nuts are a
powerhouse of nutrition," she says. "The resistant starch is a fiber we
know as prebiotics, which means that it's actually food for all the good
bacteria in your gut to help optimize your digestion."
Koff
is also a big fan of the iron content found in these little guys. "Iron
is one of those minerals that we all need to get, and I prefer you get
it from whole, organic foods," she says. "Tiger nuts provide the
equivalent amount of iron [as red meat]. Plus, you can get the same
amount of potassium from tiger nut horchata that you would get in foods
like avocado and beverages like coconut water."
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And of
course, there's the basic nutrition label to consider. One ounce of raw
tiger nuts contains about 120 calories, 10 grams of fiber (about 40
percent of your daily requirement), loads of magnesium and iron, and 7
grams each of sugar and fat (we're talking oleic acid here, a
monounsaturated fat that may promote weight loss and even reduce your appetite).
At
the end of the day, it turns out tiger nuts are a solid go-to option
when you're looking for a healthy snack. So yes, those Kardashians
really were on to something.
