Research clearly and consistently shows that nuts are essential for good health.

Yet most Australians (98% in fact), fall well short of the recommended 30g a day, so are missing out on the health benefits linked with eating a daily handful of nuts. Reasons for this shortfall include concern over the energy, fat and salt (or sodium) content of nuts.

So how do roasted nuts stack up, compared to raw nuts? Are salted nuts as ‘salty’ as we think? And is it time to reconsider nuts in their variety of forms?

About the audit

We collected data on the energy, total fat, saturated fat and sodium content, as listed on the Nutrition Information Panel, of 158 nut products (1). These products were located in the fresh produce, snacks/impulse, and baking aisles of five major Sydney grocery stores, in September 2020.

What did it find?

The audit results may come as a surprise! For instance:

• Raw and roasted nuts have a very similar energy and fat content. For example, on average, raw nuts contained 816kJ, dry-roasted nuts 779kJ and oil-roasted nuts 773kJ per 30g serve. So opting for dry-roasted or oil-roasted nuts, over raw nuts, does not necessarily mean more dietary kilojoules.
• On average, a 30g serve of unsalted nuts contained 1.8mg, and the same amount of mixed salted nuts, 95mg – which is around a third of the sodium in a regular packet of potato crisps (296mg) and a fraction of that in a standard-size berry muffin (598mg).

The Summary Report for health professionals outlines all the key findings.

Other resources