Nut Varieties & Lipids

Nuts may support heart health when you eat them regularly. Some of their beneficial nutrients are vitamin E, dietary fiber and unsaturated fats, or lipids. Enjoy a variety of nuts as snacks, in salads or as nut butters or oils. Nuts are high in calories, so eat them in moderation to avoid weight gain, and consume them as part of a balanced diet for the most health benefits.

Nuts are high in total lipids, or fats. Most of the fats in nuts are healthy, unsaturated fats. Almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, macadamias, pine nuts, walnuts, pistachios and pecans provide 12 g to 21 g total lipids per ounce, and only about 1 g to 4 g saturated fat, which raises levels of cholesterol in your blood. Other essential nutrients in nuts include protein, vitamin E, folic acid and dietary fiber. Most kinds of nuts provide 160 to 200 calories per ounce, so eat them in moderation to avoid weight gain.

Monounsaturated Fats

Monounsaturated fats are heart-healthy because they may lower your bad LDL cholesterol levels and your blood pressure, according to Mayo Clinic. All nuts provide some monounsaturated fats; especially good sources are almonds, with 8.8 g per ounce; macadamia nuts, with 16.7 g per ounce; hazelnuts, with 12.9 g per ounce; and pecans, with 11.6 g per ounce. Peanuts are biologically legumes, but they are nutritionally closer to nuts, and they have 6.9 g monounsaturated fats per ounce. Other good sources of monounsaturated fats are olives, avocados and canola oil.

Alpha-Linolenic Acid

English walnuts have 2.6 g of alpha-linolenic acid per ounce, and black walnuts have 0.6 g. Alpha-linolenic acid is an omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid, which may lower your risk for heart disease. Get at least 0.6 to 1.2 percent of your total calories from omega-3 fats, or about 1.3 to 2.6 g per day on a 2,000-calorie diet, according to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Other sources of alpha-linolenic acid include flaxseed, flaxseed oil and canola oil. You can get long-chain omega-3 fatty acids from fatty fish and shellfish as well.

Nut Oils

Nut oils are extremely concentrated sources of lipids because they do not contain proteins or carbohydrates. Substituting polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats for saturated fats in your diet may lower your cholesterol levels. When you are cooking, nut oils make healthy replacements for butter, palm oil or coconut oil, which are highly saturated. Nut oils may also lower your cholesterol levels because of their phytosterols, which are plant-derived nutrients, according to the Linus Pauling Institute Micronutrient Information Center.