The days of shelling your own peanuts at the circus and wolfing them down along with cotton candy are long gone. Today, nut growers are focused on enhancing their products natural flavors without adding any ingredients that would detract from their health benefits. Here are a few varieties of nut snack packs we recommend.
Editors’ Pick
How can you resist Mr. Peanut? A grade-schooler in Virginia named Antonio Gentile submitted a cartoon of the original Mr. Peanut in 1916 as part of a contest to develop the brand’s icon and won $5 for having the winning design. This box of 24 snack-size bags are cholesterol and trans-fat free.
Deliciously Interactive
Wonderful grows their nuts on 75,000 acres in California’s San Joaquin Valley, where the warm days and cool nights create the ideal soil. An energy-dense food, pistachios are high in protein and low in fat so they’re a great treat for those trying to incorporate nuts into a healthier diet.
Healthy Choice
A handful of these lightly salted almonds has just 40 mg of sodium, so feel free to indulge without the guilt. Each serving has 3 grams of fiber with no trans fat or cholesterol. Almonds are also lauded for lowering blood sugar and blood pressure, which means I should probably be wolfing these down every day.
Something Different
This 12-pack has three varieties of bars – each with 5 grams of sugar or less. For being so healthy, they’re remarkably tasty and addictive. Flavors include maple-glazed pecan and sea salt, dark chocolate nuts and sea salt and finally dark chocolate cinnamon pecan. They’re also gluten free and kosher so nosh away.
Steve Spears is editor of Florida Travel & Life, an online brand that inspires active, affluent travelers, providing them with insider information on discovering the best of Florida. Informative and engaging, the website showcases travel destinations, arts and cultural venues, vibrant dining scenes, recreational activities, the great outdoors and the revitalized real-estate market. He is based in Orlando and counts St. Augustine, Key West and the Gulf Beaches among his favorite destinations in the state.
