Tigernuts make a tasty treat, but did you know that they also carry numerous health benefits? As an ancient whole food, tigernuts have been used for their medicinal properties for millennia, thanks to their antioxidant properties and nutrient-rich profile.

Keep reading to learn more about tiger nuts products and their potential benefits in health and wellness, including their applications in heart and digestive health.

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What are Tiger Nuts?

Tigernuts have a tricky name – a misnomer, even –  because they’re not actually nuts. They’re not even related to nuts! They’re actually tubers, part of the underground root systems of the yellow nutsedge that store vital nutrients for the whole plant, similar to potatoes. They do, however, have a similar appearance to nuts, with a wrinkly skin that encases the nut-like tuber. Their parent plant, the yellow nutsedge, is a grassy shrub that originated in Africa but has since spread to various parts of the world, including Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

Tigernut plants belong to the Cyperus genus with approximately 700 other species of sedge grasses. Tigernuts are specifically classified as Cyperus esculentus, and can be cultivated or found in the wild. They’re farmed for their edible tubers, which can be consumed raw, roasted, or processed into a number of snacks and condiments.

What Nutritional Values Do Tiger Nuts Offer?

Tigernuts are a calorie-dense food, offering up about 120 calories per 1-ounce serving. They’re high in carbohydrates, yielding approximately 19 grams per serving, and also contain around 7-10 grams of healthy monounsaturated fat, and contain almost 10 grams of natural sugar in the average portion.

Tigernuts are not a significant source of protein, coming in at only 2 grams where many nut butters average around 8-11 grams per serving, but they make up for it with an abundance of vitamins and minerals. Vitamins C, D, and E can be found in tigernuts, along with significant levels of iron, zinc, magnesium, and potassium – all of which are vital to many key processes in the human body.

How Do Tiger Nuts Benefit Digestive Health?

Incorporating tigernuts in your everyday eats can possibly benefit your digestive health and improve it, thanks to minerals like zinc, potassium, and magnesium found in the tricky tubers. Fiber, another key ingredient to lasting digestive health, is also more abundant in tigernuts than actual nuts.

Consuming the fiber found in tigernuts can help your gut move food along the tract and keep your intestines clean. It can also help you absorb nutrients by slowing the speed at which food is digested, allowing your gut to squeeze every last drop of nutrition out of the food you eat.

Fiber is also the food of choice for beneficial gut bacteria and flora. Keeping these colonies of good bacteria well-nourished can help maintain a balanced intestinal ecosystem, which can impact nearly every aspect of your health and well-being.

Can Tiger Nuts Improve Heart Health?

Tigernuts can also potentially impact your cardiovascular health in a major way. Tigernuts are packed with monounsaturated fat, the heart-healthy kind of fat that contains Vitamin E. Monounsaturated fat can balance your cholesterol, in turn lowering your risk of adverse cardiovascular events like stroke and heart attack.

The Vitamin E in the monounsaturated fat can protect your heart (and the rest of your body’s cells) from oxidative stress. Other important vitamins in tigernuts, like vitamins C & D, promote heart health and improve your body’s entire cardiovascular system.

Tigernuts also contain arginine, which can help maintain blood pressure by regulating the dilation of blood vessels.

What are the Antioxidant Properties of Tiger Nuts?

Tigernuts are packed with antioxidants, which are necessary to protect the health and wellbeing of your cells. Vitamin C found in tigernuts helps your body absorb iron (also found in the tubers), a key mineral that helps your blood cells distribute oxygen to your skin, muscles, and organs.

Tigernuts also contain free radical-fighting vitamins C & E, as well as Vitamin D, which helps your body absorb calcium for bone health. Preventing inflammation with an antioxidant-rich diet is vital in maintaining your health and preventing diseases like diabetes, heart disease, autoimmune diseases, and some neurological diseases. Eating tigernuts and other food with lots of antioxidants can help you live a long, comfortable life.

How Can Tiger Nuts Be Incorporated into a Daily Diet?

It’s easier than you might think to incorporate exotic tigernuts into your everyday diet. Here are a few ideas:

Use tigernut butter. Tigernut butter is versatile and can be swapped in place of any other butter or nut butter you currently use. Add it to snacks, in smoothies, or in virtually any other place you’d typically use peanut or almond butter.

Swap regular flour for tigernut flour. Tigernut flour is a gluten-free substitute for wheat flour that incorporates all of the nutrients of tigernuts while reducing allergens in products. Like other alternatives, tigernut flour might bake differently than regular flour, so it may require some experimentation to adjust recipes to the change.

Add it to breakfast foods. Breakfast is a great time to get more tigernuts in your diet. Whether you typically reach for a smoothie bowl, oatmeal, yogurt, or toast, adding tigernut spread or tigernut flour can enhance the flavor of the meal and make it more nutritious.

Incorporate it in sauces, dips, and dressings. Smooth ground tigernuts can be added as a base or a flavoring agent to all kinds of sauces, dips, and dressings for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacktime.

Remember, as wonderful and nutritious as they are, one can’t exist on tigernuts alone. They make a great addition to a well-rounded, intentionally balanced diet along with protein, healthy fats, fibrous foods and complex carbohydrates.

Conclusion on the Health Benefits of Tigernuts

Tigernuts can be a key component of any balanced diet, and incorporating them may yield unexpected benefits like boosted antioxidants and improved heart and digestive health. Getting more tigernuts in your diet can be fun and flavorful while also improving your overall health and quality of life!