If you like to indulge in walnuts, you are not alone. All over the world, they are added to main dishes, side dishes, desserts, salads or just eaten by themselves as a healthy snack. The American Walnut Tree is one of the most majestic in the country. There are also a lot of fun facts that you may not know about this kind of nut.

• Walnuts are popular snacks at professional sporting events. In 2008, American Walnut Trees were responsible for providing the Superbowl with about 2.7 million pounds of the nuts. If these nuts had been placed on the field rather than in the food, it would have had a layer of walnuts three feet deep.
• If you wanted to take walnuts and spread them around the equator, you would need more than one billion of them to do the job.
• The American Walnut Tree hails from a very old line. Evidence of walnut trees has placed the mas far back as 7000 BC.
• The Roman word for walnut was “Juglans regia” or “Juniper’s royal acorn.”
• In England, walnuts were reserved for people who were royalty. The nuts that now find Britain home, were originally from the Middle East. England has never boasted a commercial walnut industry.
• In many areas, the walnut is called the “Persian walnut.” In olden times, these types of nuts were traded along the silk road, which runs from the Middle East to Asia.
• There are several kind of walnuts that are now grown in the United States. The real American Walnut tree, it is native to North America, produces black walnuts. The “English Walnut Tree” was planted in California and is now the main source of commercially available walnuts in the United States. The black walnuts are not eaten so much as used for rootstock for the kind that is sold.
• The California walnut industry was started by Franciscan monks at the end of the 1700s. Moden walnut production began in California around 1867.
• Walnut trees are not only popular in California. In Missouri, the official tree nut of the state is the Eastern Black Walnut Treet, also called “Junglans nigra.”
• Walnuts are very dry. They only have about 4% water as measured by their weight.
• Walnuts are considered to be one of the “super foods.” They have been shown to have a lot of important omega three fatty acids, which can cut your chances for developing cancer and have properties that make them good for brain health. They are chock full on antioxidants, are a great source of healthy protein, are packed with vitamins and minerals and have no cholesterol or trans fat.
• Many people in the United States enjoy walnuts. They have the number three spot for their popularity among tree nuts. They are just that good.

When you are looking for a great addition to your dishes or meals or you just want a healthy snack, it is hard to go wrong with nuts. Nuts and seeds have a lot of nutritional value to them. Despite the fact that they do have a decent amount of fat in them, people who consume them find they lose more weight than dieters who do not. In Spain, researchers looked into weight loss and the consumption of nuts. They studied 8,865 men and women. The results showed that when people eat at least two servings of nuts every week, they are about 31% less likely to gain weight than people who abstained from nut consumption. When Harvard University looked into the health benefits of eating nuts, they discovered that getting two servings every day can lower a person’s chanced for developing diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

There are a lot of ways to get the fruits of the American Walnut Tree into your diet. They can be added to roasted vegetables such as Brussel spouts, crushed over ice cream or even just popped straight out of the container. One reason these and other nuts are so good for weight loss and better health is that they tend to keep people full longer, which means they will take in fewer calories. If you are thinking about the thought, “Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t,” for your health, you should opt for the nut. Your waistline will thank you later.