pretending to know everything closes the door finding out what's really there -Neil deGrasse Tyson
Let'sKnow cashew Better
Cashew is one of the most valuable and most nutritious, processed kernel in the global commodity markets and has the potential to generate employment and revenue at national and international leve1.1 It is a kidney shaped nut, product of Brazil, introduced by the Portuguese to Mozambique and India during the sixteenth century.
The cashew tree earlier served only as a means of controlling coastal erosion before the fifteenth century. In fact, the people of this century did not know the value and importance of the cashew nut and cashew nut shell liquid. But they consumed the cashew apple and threw the cashew nuts away. The value, importance and usefulness of cashew nut was recognized during the last part of the sixteenth century, that too, only after it reached India and Mozambique from Brazil. The cashew tree, native to Brazil, was introduced to Mozambique and then India in the sixteenth century by the Portuguese, as a means of controlling coastal erosion. It was spread within these countries with the aid of elephants that ate the bright cashew fruit along with the attached nut. The nut was too hard to digest and was later expelled with the droppings. It was not until the nineteenth century that plantations were developed and the tree then spread to a number of other countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
HealthBenefits
Cashew nuts pack proteins, fats and vitamins to a high degree. Proteins, the tissue builders in our system, steal a large dividend of cashew contents. Cashew kernels contain 21 % of vegetable proteins. Nutritionally they stand at par with milk, eggs and meat. It also contains a high concentration of much needed amino acids in right proportions which is very rare in nuts.
Indian cashews are natures proven finest diet. Its an all time all place snack. It is a storehouse of nutrients. It contains protein 21%, fat 47%, moisture 5.9 %, carbohydrates 22%, phosphorus 0.45%, calcium 0.05%, iron 5% for every 100 gm and other mineral elements. Eating nuts can be very beneficial as long as they replace other foods and are not just added to the diet.
Cashew nut kernel contains 47% fat, but 82% of this fat is unsaturated fatty acids. This is important because no dietician will prescribe a saturated fat packet to any one due to its high cholesterol content. Unsaturated fat eliminates the possibility of, and actually lowers, the cholesterol level in blood.