Walnuts – Raw – Heirloom – Organic

Walnuts are a timeless favorite, prized for their rich, nutty flavor and satisfying crunch. Long cherished in Mediterranean cuisine, they can be enjoyed on their own as a simple snack or incorporated into both sweet and savory recipes. Their bold taste makes them a versatile addition to salads, baked goods, sauces, and grain dishes.

Convenient and shelf-stable, walnuts are also perfect for blending into nut butters, sprinkling over oatmeal and yogurt, or pairing with cheeses and fruits for an elegant platter. With their distinctive flavor and hearty texture, they bring depth and character to everyday meals and gourmet creations alike.

Organic, Raw, Heirloom Walnuts

For good reasons, walnuts are considered a superstar and significant player in the various versions of the world-renowned Mediterranean diet. Walnuts are considered a staple food in this well-researched lifestyle.

Before discussing all of the benefits and impressive scientific information about walnuts, here are some interesting and surprising facts you may not know about this tremendous food:

1. Walnuts are not nuts; they are seeds. While in the culinary world, walnuts are considered nuts, botanically, they are the seeds of drupes. The technical definition of a nut is a simple dry fruit with one seed in which the ovary wall becomes increasingly hard as the fruit matures and the seed remains unattached within the ovary wall. A drupe, aka stone fruit, has an outer flashy part surrounding the shell with an edible seed inside.
2. 99% of United States commercial supply and ¾ of the world trade of walnuts come from California. 
3. Walnuts are harvested once a year between September and November.
4. There are more than 30 varieties of commercially produced walnuts. 
5. Walnuts are the oldest known tree fruit, dating back to 10,000 BC.  
6. Walnuts are an outstanding food for supporting healthy sleep habits. While walnuts contain a tiny amount of melatonin, around three nanograms per gram (one million nanograms equals one milligram), a handful contains around 318 milligrams of Tryptophan.
7. Walnuts contain 65% fat and 15% protein by weight.
8. While walnuts are known for being an outstanding source of magnesium (around 125 milligrams per cup), their star minerals are potassium (353 milligrams per cup) and phosphorus (404 milligrams per cup).
9. Walnuts are an excellent source of prebiotic fiber.
10. The walnut tree is associated with wisdom and knowledge; the wrinkled nut is reminiscent of the human brain.  

Debunking a Nutty Myth: Are Walnuts a source of complete protein?

Walnuts are a good source of protein, providing four grams per ounce (as a comparison, beef is, on average, 7 grams per ounce). However, like most plant-based protein sources, walnuts are an incomplete protein.

In many of our extensive protein articles, we have discussed how a complete protein is defined. It was once believed that a complete protein is a food that simply contained all nine essential amino acids. However, modern research has taught us that the need for these essential amino acids to be in adequate and consistent amounts plays an equally important role in defining a complete protein. Therefore, a food can be considered an incomplete protein if one or more essential amino acids are insufficient, even if all nine EAAs are present. Inadequateness is defined in the above case through the amino acid score. The score is calculated by dividing the content of individual EAAs in food protein by the same amino acid content in the reference pattern.

However, when creating muscle and enzyme proteins, the body is only concerned about having all nine essential amino acids present. The overall result is the same whether the protein comes from a single source of complete protein, like egg and whey, or combined sources, like plant proteins. Pairing walnuts with another well-balanced protein source is easier than you think. Combining walnuts with beans (another superstar of the Mediterranean lifestyle) will give your body all the ingredients it needs for creating muscle and enzyme proteins.

A delicious walnut and three-bean salad doused in extra virgin olive oil, a squeeze of lemon, and some salt and pepper is a perfect and tasty way to achieve this goal. 

In a Nutshell: The Variety and Versatility of Walnuts

Your food choices ‘ versatility is critical for adhering to a healthy lifestyle. Walnuts are a highly versatile food offering a wide variety and unique spectrum of walnut flavors from earthy and mild to robust with a slightly sweet finish.

For example, the Eureka variety has a wonderfully robust walnut flavor without bitter undertones, making it a favorite among walnut growers. This unique spectrum of flavors can recreate and bring new life to a food or recipe. Therefore, chefs and bakers worldwide agree pairing the correct type of walnuts for specific purposes is essential to getting the most out of your food and recipe experience.

While there are more than 30 varieties of commercially produced walnuts, some of the most common are Chandler, Hartley, and Howards. Some older but still popular varieties like Sers, Franquetts, and Vina are not to be forgotten for their contribution to the flavor and versatility game. You may be wondering why so many varieties are produced. The purpose of creating so many varieties is to produce a walnut with greater vigor (referring to its growth habits) and the ability to resist disease and overcome environmental issues. 

As stated above, proper pairing is critical to getting the most out of your walnuts. Therefore, looking at flavors, undertones, and size is crucial for optimal results. Generally speaking, walnuts offer light and darker amber tones, each providing its unique flavor profile. Light walnuts have greater stability, a mild flavor, and an earthy undertone due to higher tannin levels. However, the slightly darker amber walnuts have a more robust flavor and sweeter finish. Yes, it is true; size matters, especially when looking for the best texture for your recipe. Grinding walnuts into a fine meal and adding them to a smoothie can create a creamier texture. When adding to soups, leaving the walnuts whole can provide greater texture and contrast to the eating experience. However, salads contain more texture, so smaller walnut pieces (chopped) are more appropriate to keep the texture profile in balance.  

Walnuts: A Superstar in the Fatty Acid Game

There are two primary types of fats: saturated and unsaturated. 

Structurally speaking, saturated fats have no double bonds, whereas unsaturated fats have one or more of these bonds. A fat with one double bond is considered monounsaturated, whereas if it has more than one, it is polyunsaturated. Polyunsaturated fats are broken down into two classes: Omega-3 and 6 fatty acids. An important point to understand is that while specific foods may be higher in a particular type of fat,  all foods contain a mixture of saturated, mono, and polyunsaturated fats. Like most other “nuts,” or in this case, seeds, walnuts contain the majority of their calories from fat, making them energy-dense, high-calorie foods. Walnuts are a great source and are higher than most seeds in polyunsaturated fatty acids, the most abundant one being omega-6 linoleic acid. However, around 12% of walnuts’ fatty acid profile comes from the Omega-3 fatty acid Alpha linoleic acid (ALA), making walnuts a well-balanced omega fatty acid food. 

The following was stated in a study discussing dietary ALA’s effects on reducing the cardiovascular risk factors of inflammation and lipid profile imbalances in hypercholesterolemic men and women:

• Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) reduces cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, possibly by favorably changing vascular inflammation and endothelial dysfunction.
• Inflammatory markers and lipids and lipoproteins were assessed in hypercholesterolemic subjects (n = 23) fed two diets low in saturated fat and cholesterol and high in PUFA varying in ALA (ALA Diet) and linoleic acid (LA Diet) compared with an average American diet (AAD).
• The ALA Diet provided 17% energy from PUFA (10.5% LA; 6.5% ALA); the LA Diet provided 16.4% energy from PUFA (12.6% LA; 3.6% ALA); and the AAD provided 8.7% energy from PUFA (7.7% LA; 0.8% ALA).
• The ALA Diet decreased C-reactive protein (CRP, P < 0.01), whereas the LA Diet tended to decrease CRP (P = 0.08).
• Although the two high-PUFA diets similarly decreased intercellular cell adhesion molecule-1 vs. AAD (-19.1% by the ALA Diet, P < 0.01; -11.0% by the LA Diet, P < 0.01), the ALA Diet decreased vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1, -15.6% vs. -3.1%, P < 0.01) and E-selectin (-14.6% vs. -8.1%, P < 0.01) more than the LA Diet.
• Changes in CRP and VCAM-1 were inversely associated with changes in serum eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) (r = -0.496, P = 0.016; r = -0.418, P = 0.047) or EPA plus docosapentaenoic acid (r = -0.409, P = 0.053; r = -0.357, P = 0.091) after subjects consumed the ALA Diet.
• The two high-PUFA diets decreased serum total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides similarly (P < 0.05); the ALA Diet decreased HDL cholesterol and apolipoprotein AI compared with the AAD (P < 0.05).

Therefore, it was concluded that “ALA appears to decrease CVD risk by inhibiting vascular inflammation and endothelial activation beyond its lipid-lowering effects.”

Walnuts: A Treasure Trove of Nourishment

Polyphenols are a term used to describe a general category of compounds found in a broad spectrum of fruits, vegetables, and tea that work as “reducing agents” along with other compounds known as antioxidants to support a healthy inflammation response and the body’s ability to protect and repair damaged tissue caused by oxidative stress. While over 8,000 polyphenols have been identified, some of the most common are flavonoids, flavonols, and anthocyanins. The importance of discussing these various compounds allows you to more clearly understand the wide range and complexity of nourishment you are getting from these powerful foods.

An assay that measures the total concentration of active compounds concluded that the top 50 foods with the highest levels of active antioxidants were “Based on typical serving sizes, blackberries, walnuts, strawberries, artichokes, cranberries, brewed coffee, raspberries, pecans, blueberries, ground cloves, grape juice, and unsweetened baking chocolate were at the top of the ranked list.”

In another paper discussing free and total polyphenols in nine types of raw and roasted nuts, it was stated that not only did walnuts have the highest free and total polyphenols, but “walnut polyphenols had the best efficacy among the nuts and also the highest lipoprotein-bound antioxidant activity”. Based on USDA availability data, the per capita total polyphenols was 162 mg from nuts per day in 2008. This corresponds to 19% of the total polyphenols from fruits and vegetables, nuts, grains, oils, and spices in the US diet. Nuts provided 158 mg of polyphenols per day to the European Union diet.

Finally, the following was stated in a review discussing the health benefits of polyphenols in walnuts. “The main polyphenol in walnuts is pedunculagin, an ellagitannin. After consumption, ellagitannins are hydrolyzed to release ellagic acid, which is converted by gut microflora to urolithin A and other derivatives such as urolithins B, C, and D. Ellagitannins possess well-known antioxidant and anti-inflammatory bioactivity, and several studies have assessed the potential role of ellagitannins against disease.”

Walnuts and Pomegranates: A Match Made in Heaven

Walnuts and pomegranates are considered superstars in the MD lifestyle, and combining them packs a nourishing culinary punch. It is well known that opposites can attract, and from a culinary perspective, the flavors of walnuts and pomegranates complement each other quite well. The acidic sweetness of pomegranates is a perfect complement to walnuts’ astringent and oily flavor. They are also both rich in the family of the polyphenolic compound ellagitannins.

Punicalagin is an ellagitannin (a polyphenol not absorbed into the bloodstream but instead hydrolyzed into ellagic acid) found in the peel of a pomegranate. This powerful compound has potentially proven antioxidant, hepatoprotective, and anti-atherosclerotic nourishing traits. It has also been shown to inhibit inflammatory pathways on the action of toxic substances and is highly tolerated. One of the primary and most impressive things pomegranates have been studied for is their ability to protect aging arteries and possibly reverse endothelial dysfunction. In this condition, the large blood vessels in the heart’s surface constrict instead of dilate.

Summary of Important Information

Z Natural Foods hand-picks specific ingredients for our customers based on three concepts to provide the best quality product possible to support optimal well-being.

• Versatility
• History of safe and effective usage
• Strong evidence of positive research outcomes in human

Important summary points

1. Walnuts are not nuts; they are seeds. 
2. There are more than 30 varieties of commercially produced walnuts. 
3. Walnuts are the oldest known tree fruit, dating back to 10,000 BC.  
4. Walnuts are an outstanding food for supporting healthy sleep habits. While walnuts contain a tiny amount of melatonin, a handful contains around 318 milligrams of Tryptophan.
5. Walnuts contain 65% fat and 15% protein by weight.
6. While walnuts are known for being an outstanding source of magnesium, potassium, and phosphorus.
7. Walnuts are a good source of protein, providing four grams per ounce.
8. Walnuts contain the majority of their calories from fat, making them energy-dense, high-calorie foods.

Suggested Uses: Eat by the handful. Add to homemade trail mixes, recipes, or desserts.
Botanical Name: Juglans regia.
Other Names: Persian Walnut, Mission Walnut, English Walnut, English Light Walnut.

Parts Used: Whole, Walnut.
Ingredients: Raw Heirloom Walnuts.
Origin: Grown in the USA. Packaged with care in Florida, USA.

Certifications: Certified USDA Organic.