How To Make A Healthy Tiger Nut Trail Mix

A trail mix with tiger nuts adds a nice sweet flavor that many have described as coconut-like, and you may even confuse them with almonds as some types can look and taste similar.

You may enjoy a trail mix and decide for a change, and by making a few tweaks, you can have a combination that surely satisfies your hunger while being lighter in calories and giving you a nice boost in protein if you find this lacking in your diet.

How To Make A Healthy Tiger Nut Trail Mix

To find out how this mix is made and what each nut is made of, you can find out more below, and you may even find a new blend that is perfect to your tastes. 

What You Need To Make The Mix

This trail mix is so simple to make, and these nuts can be found near the baking or snacking isle in your local grocery or general goods store, so the nuts you need are:

  • Almond slivers (250g)
  • Cashew nuts ( 1kg or 2 pounds)
  • Black jumbo raisins (500g)
  • Sunflower seeds (1kg or 2 pounds) 
  • Peeled tiger nuts ( 500g) 

With all these ingredients, you mix them together, and there you have it. You can always make substitutions if you want different kinds of seeds or raisins.  

What Makes This Mix So Healthy? 

To find out what the overall benefits of this mix are, it’s a good idea to break each one down and look at their nutritional value so we can find out what they can do for you beyond giving you a slow release of energy.

Almonds 

These nuts can be calorie-dense but contain a lot of nutrients, as most of this comes from monounsaturated fat, which can help reduce harmful levels of bad cholesterol in your blood.

Also, they can give you a lot of calcium which is at its highest in this nut, around 72 mg.

If you eat them with the skin on, you can find the benefits go beyond this, as this can help with gut health as it promotes the growth of good bacteria in your system and has compounds that have antioxidant effects. 

Cashews 

Not only are they known for their sweeter and sometimes buttery taste, but these nuts can improve blood lipid levels, reduce blood pressure, and give you a nice top-up in protein and minerals, most notably magnesium and iron.

If you have a 30g serving, you can find these benefits plus, the magnesium inside is said to help with age-related memory loss and is great for those who are vegan or vegetarian as these can give you a good source of copper. 

Raisins 

You’ll find these rich dried grapes in most mixes, and they are suitable for balancing out those salty and dry tastes, but they do shine with their nutrients and are minimally processed, as these have something called boron, which can help with joint health and wound healing.

How To Make A Healthy Tiger Nut Trail Mix

However, you may want to limit how many of these you use in a mix as a quarter cup contains 108 calories, and each nut can add up pretty quickly and could lead to weight gain if not consumed in healthy amounts. 

Sunflower Seeds 

These nutty and tender seeds are another way to pack more vitamins and minerals into your diet, as niacin, folate, manganese, copper, selenium, zinc, pantothenic acid, iron, vitamin E, and vitamin B6 are all packed into a single seed.

When all put together, these can help with inflammation caused by chronic diseases and diabetes, as they can cut down your blood sugar levels to a healthy range, and they can do this by decreasing the effects of carbohydrates on blood sugar levels. 

Tiger Nuts 

We refer to these as nuts, but they are, in fact, a tuber, but that doesn’t take away how nutty and sweet they taste, and they can give you a good amount of fiber, as a serving of these can provide up to 10 grams, which can aid towards bowel health. 

With this, though, they can be pretty high in sugar and carbohydrates, so managing the amount you use is essential. The ones you consume can help with things like allergies and constipation and have antibacterial properties. 

Getting In The Right Amount Of Nuts 

The advice, in general, is to have a quarter of a cup per day, which is about 35 grams, so it’s essential to follow this as after eating a mix, you may find yourself still hungry, and this is due to the high levels of carbohydrates that each nut contains.

If you’re in the store and want a premade bag of trail mix, look out for organic types, as these will have less added sugar or sodium, which can affect blood pressure which is the opposite of what a healthy snack should do. 

If you’re making your own mix at home, you can try different nuts like chestnuts, pistachios, hazelnuts, or Brazil nuts, which aren’t quite as high in carbohydrates as other kinds, but it’s all about getting the right balance of nutrients that can keep you going. 

Can A Trail Mix Aid With Weight Loss? 

The main ingredient in nuts for this purpose is protein, which can help with muscle growth, tissue repair, and immune health, and this, in part, can help you feel fuller for longer while beating tiredness, so you have more energy when it comes to exercise. 

The Bottom Line 

You can also balance this with a diet that gets all your essential nutrients that you may have to get from other foods, with the addition of a good exercise routine.

You can continue to have some trail mix a few times a week to give you a nice spike in energy, as there can be days where we need an uplift to get going.  

Lindsey Morgan
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