Chestnuts roasting on an open fire is a timeless image of Christmas. These nuts, a gift from the Castanea genus family, deliver a slight sweetness along with a nutty crunch and the flexibility to be added to salads, soups, stuffing, and many other dishes.
Sweet chestnuts are often called the “bread tree,” serving as a popular food and source of nutrition for people in the Mediterranean and Europe.[i] Widely recognized for their nutritional value, these nuts provide carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, fiber, and protein. Here are five extraordinary benefits of chestnuts for human health.
1. Better Memory
Nuts in general are lauded for their nutrient profile. In particular, they are studied for combating oxidative damage, inflammation, aging, and dementia or memory loss.[ii]
A 2020 review, published in Current pharmaceutical design, looked at the anti-dementia property of nine different nuts, including chestnuts. It noted nuts’ rich nutritional profile, including essential fats, proteins, vitamins, fiber, minerals, and trace elements. These properties and more “can make nuts an alternate therapy for humankind to fight against memory loss,” the authors wrote.
