Boiled or baked chestnuts 🆙

Chestnuts for the diet

Rich and nutritious, chestnuts were - and in some cases still are - the "proteins" of the farmers and of the inhabitants of the villages of the hilly areas who gathered them in autumn to stock them up for the winter.

Generous in carbohydrates, chestnuts on the one hand provide precious energy to the body; also containing essential amino acids, a diet in which balanced doses of chestnuts are taken is able to bring benefits to the tissues, from the skin to the muscles, to the nerve fibers. They contain vitamin C, provitamin A, B9 and folic acid.

Particularly, boiled chestnuts or steamed chestnuts, they are also an excellent resource for those on a diet or who have to dispose of a few extra pounds, in fact they contain about 70 calories less than roast ones, which have 193 per pound.

Chestnuts for diabetics: yes or no?

Chestnuts are rich in carbohydrates and therefore sugars they are not recommended generally to those suffering from diabetes. After consulting your doctor, depending on your type of diabetes, you can make an exception by consuming them occasionally in the morning.

La INRAN nutritional table of foods can be a valid help to consult in case of doubts about the composition of the various foods.

Chestnuts and celiac disease

High in potassium and low in sodium, chestnuts contain fibers that help regulate the intestine. For those with irritable bowel, who have problems with aerophagia, they should seek the advice of their doctor. While chestnuts for celiacs are not only indicated, but they are suggested precisely because they are gluten-free.

Caution: this is not the case for the Chestnut flour, which represents, according to eleco AIC, a food at risk as it can undergo contamination during processing. Chestnut or marroni flour, it is therefore important to check that the barred ear.

Cooking with chestnuts

Boiled, steamed, baked or roasted, chestnuts are special ingredients for many dishes and dishes.

Perfect and healthy chestnuts can be eaten as they are, as a snack or a vigorous snack; alternatively they can be used to make desserts - cakes, biscuits, creams - first courses - risottos, pastas, vegetarian lasagna - or even main courses, such as the interesting roast nut, a super-nourishing vegan roast, in which they are present together with other ingredients and dried fruit.

A winter delicacy? Serve honey chestnuts, candied or caramelized accompanying them with tasty, important and quality cheeses.

Curiosity: the chestnuts of the horse chestnut, a plant not to be confused with the local chestnut, produces bitter and poisonous chestnuts, which are the seeds and not the fruits of the plant, anything but sweet and edible!

Reference books: "The well-being of the intestine - Doctor in the family"; "The easy diet for the winter: Lose weight and don't get sick", by Riza Institute of Psychosomatic Medicine.