Where to buy nuts and seeds

Nuts and seeds are a key part of a low carb high fat diet. They are one of the indulgent healthy foods that Kris Gunnars lists is this article on Authority Nutrition. They are great for filling you up when a regular meal has not satisfied you and also for snacks.

We keep a large selection of nuts in the press and make sure to turn them over regularly. Certain types go off pretty quickly and taste very bad when they do - walnuts in particular. Once you have opened a bag of nuts fold the bag closed tightly and seal it with a clothes peg (a lot handier than fiddling around with a bag sealing clip).

We buy most of our nuts in Lidl. We don't do the main shop here usually - that's Aldi, but the selection of nuts in Aldi is not good. Especially if you are looking for raw nuts - not fried and not salted. More about why we get raw nuts later.

These are the ones we buy in Lidl:

• Cashews
• Brazil nuts - now in larger packets
• Pistachios in their shells
• Walnuts

Remember to check the baking section of wherever you shop too - not just the nuts section beside the crisps and snacks. You can get whole unblanched almonds here - like eating marzipan - and sliced almonds which are really great toasted on a dry pan. Toasting like this benefits most nuts, although you should only do it when you are using them as it makes them go stale more quickly. The nuts in baking section seem to be cheaper than those in the snack section for some reason.

We also get these seeds:

• Sunflower
• Pumpkin
• Sesame
• Linseed

The reason why we don't usually go for the salted and roasted nuts is that we end up overdosing on salty snacks. This can make you uncomfortably thirsty, especially before bedtime. In addition, sunflower oil is usually the fat that nuts are cooked in. There is information here on why sunflower oil is not a good idea.