Cashews

Cashews, whose rich flavor and creamy consistency makes them a favorite addition in gourmet raw food dishes, are botanically seeds, not nuts. These seeds are, generally speaking, not raw because they must burned out of seed pods during harvesting. Cashews score just a 65 out of 100, the second-lowest-rated food, in Dr. T.C. Fry’s “A General Guide to Food Selection.”

Cashews grow on tropical evergreen trees standing as much as 46 feet tall. The binomial name of cashews is Anacardium occidentale.

An ounce of cashews weighs 28 grams and contains 157 calories. Cashews are loaded in minerals, especially copper, magnesium and manganese.

Vietnam is the world’s leading producer of cashews, growing 1.11 million metric tons—about a quarter of the total global production.—in 2013 Nigeria (950,000), India (753,000), Côte d’Ivoire (450,000) and Benin (180,000) round out the list of the leading five producers in 2013.

Stats for 100 Grams of Cashews (Raw)

• 553 calories

Notable Nutrients

Percentages based on the Reference Daily Intake for a 2,000-calorie diet

• Fiber: 13.2%
• Fat: 67.5%
• Protein: 36.4%
• Vitamin B1: 28.2%
• Vitamin B3: 5.3%
• Vitamin B5: 8.6%
• Vitamin B6: 20.9%
• Vitamin E: 4.5%
• Folate: 6.3%
• Copper: 109.8%
• Iron: 37.1%
• Magnesium: 73%
• Manganese: 82.8%
• Phosphorous: 59.3%
• Potassium: 18.9%
• Selenium: 28.4%
• Zinc: 38.5%

Carbs/Protein/Fat

• Carbohydrates: 22.2%
• Protein: 11.4%
• Fat: 66.4%

Food Type

• Seed

Sources

• Self Healing Colitis & Crohn’s by Dr. David Klein
• http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/3645
• http://www.cronometer.com
• http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/cashew_nut.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cashew