Heart-Disease: Nuts To You... Just One Way to a Healthy Heart

Nuts are readily available and provide a highly nutritious food. In
addition to protein, carbohydrate, and fat, nuts contain many other
important nutrients: fiber, vitamin E, folic acid, potassium, and
magnesium. Although on some food charts you may see nuts listed in
the same food category as diary products, eggs, and red meat because
of the fat content, new information calls into question this
designation.

While nuts do contain a high proportion of fat, tree nuts such as
almonds, walnuts, pecans, hazel nuts, Brazil nuts, and macadamia are
actually low in saturated fat. Most of the fat comes in the form of
monounsaturated fats and omega-3 fatty acids, which are considered
to be acceptable forms of fat that actually "reduce" the incidence
of heart and vascular disease.