Trees with cashews are growing today in India, where annually harvests of "apples", reaching 25 thousand tons. Of these, you can cook many excellent dishes: jams, compotes, juices, jelly, incidentally, for the production of alcoholic beverages, they are also suitable. These products can be tried in our country, but they are difficult to find, because they are quite popular in the homeland, and our share is not always enough ...
Unlike "apples", nuts are perfectly transported. They are known all over the world. And recently their popularity is gaining momentum in our country.
Curved cashew nuts are covered with a fairly hard shell. These nuts are cut off by hand, but only professionals are capable of this, because between the shell and the core itself is a shell with a poisonous, burnable, oil. But masters often get burned.
Poisoning, by the way, does not threaten us, because poisonous oil is evaporated during roasting. Only after it evaporates, nuts can be bitten easily. In a shell, cashews are never sold. By the way, poisonous oil is also used in the production of impregnations for the protection of wood.
Cashew nuts are loved by very many for their oily, tender taste. Sometimes they seem fat, but it's just imagination, they have less fat in them than in nuts of walnuts, peanuts or almonds. Cashews have many useful elements. Cashew is rich in proteins, carbohydrates, fats, dietary fiber, natural sugars, starch, saturated and unsaturated species of fatty acids.
Cashew nuts: caloric content.
In cashew, as in other nuts, a lot of calories (100 grams contain about 600 kcal), but they contain a lot of vitamins and mineral compounds. In nuts high content of vitamins B and E, PP, which makes them indispensable for women. They contain many elements of calcium, potassium, iron, zinc, copper, selenium and manganese.
Cashew nuts: composition.
Cashews are valued for the content of unsaturated fatty acids (Omega-3). If you regularly eat cashews a little, the cholesterol level will always be normal, and cells, especially the brain cells, which need more fat, are protected.
Cashew: useful properties.
The one who constantly uses cashews will never have problems with gums and teeth. Japanese scientists have proved that cashew contains substances that positively affect the tooth enamel. Probably, soon there will be tooth powders and pastes with cashew extracts.
Traditional healers of Africa for a long time already with inflammation of the gums and pain in the teeth grease the mouth with paste from cashew and honey. Often, dentists advise to gnaw exactly these nuts.
It was considered that cashew refers to aphrodisiacs because of the richness in nuts of vitamin E. This vitamin is also useful for skin diseases, it is recommended to those whose skin is stricken, for example, by eczema, or by other ailments caused by metabolic disturbances. Decoction of a nut shell African healers are used for warts, skin cracks and dermatitis.
Healing properties of cashews.
When using nuts are able to strengthen the body's immune forces. In Latin America, nuts and nuts are used to treat respiratory diseases (bronchitis, asthma, influenza, ARI). Also possessing the cashew properties of tonic, antiseptic, stimulating, antimicrobial, antibacterial action.
Cashew is an excellent assistant in maintaining blood vessels and heart. Nuts help with diabetes and GI disorders. Dysentery is also subject to treatment with nuts.
If a person has body exhaustion or anemia, and he needs to build up a lot, nutritionists are advised to resort to a diet based on cashews. But even for those who need the opposite effect, that is, you need to lose weight, the same diet is recommended. Cashew nuts are well absorbed and quickly suppress the feeling of hunger. In this way, nuts help to reduce the amount of necessary food and calories. Naturally, portions of other food should be reduced, and nuts replace other, no less than high-calorie foods and meals.
In India, husks of dried nut kernels and nut butter are used as an antidote for snake bites. Means prepared in this way are used both internally and externally, only in small dosages.
Cosmetology and cashew oil.
Oil, produced from cashew nuts, is widely used by cosmetologists. They are enriched with ready-made cosmetics, used in the preparation of masks for the body and facial skin, for appliques, for the treatment of hair. And it is used to avoid burns after sunburn. If your skin after a long stay under the sun's rays is very red, you can put on it 1 table. a spoonful of cashew oil mixed with 2-3 drops of geranium, lavender or rose oil.
You can see that nature has chosen cashew nuts to make them the focus of many healing properties that bring tremendous benefits to our body in the name of beauty and health.
Cooking and cashews.
Culinary people also use cashews in their delights quite often, however, only where these nuts grow. True, recently enough to go to the store to buy nuts and use them in various dishes. Cashews are quite high in calories, and the fact that they are fried and salted, only adds calories to them.
Nevertheless, cashew nuts are a great snack, even if it is used separately. But cashew goes well with the first dishes, the second, pastry, salads ... In many Asian countries, these nuts are more popular than others, and cashew oil is more like peanut butter.
Cashew: how to choose?
Cashew nuts, which are already ready for consumption, are often sold in salt form. They are more expensive than chips and popcorn, but the benefits from them are much more palpable. Often they are fried and sold in chocolate glaze and honey.
If you decide to buy fresh cashews, then give preference to whole nuts, rather than shredded ones. Long to store cashew in warmth can not be rancid. In the freezer, nuts are stored almost a year, and in the refrigerator - six months, in a cool place - a month.