The Almond (Math) Problem

Recently, I was visiting with a client regarding her food diary.  Although my client had been keeping a food diary, it was incomplete, lacking serving sizes and macronutrient information.  As we began discussing her record keeping, I noticed that she had recorded "almonds" several times per day, over the course of the week in question.  I asked her to tell me exactly how many almonds was in each serving on her food record.  Her response was something like, "I'm not exactly sure, but probably a handful each time" (which was occurring 4-6 times day). 

So what is the BIG deal about eating almonds?  The package even says that they are "smart eating" and an "irresistible snack", and they are also whole and natural.  The package also highlights that they have no cholesterol, they are a good source of fiber, and contain no artificial ingredients.  It is true that most of the fatty acid content of almonds comes from monounsaturated fatty acids (~61% of the fat content) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (~25% of the fat content).  These are considered to be the "good" fats as compared to saturated fatty acids which are more prevalent in high fat animal products, such as whole milk, standard beef products, and chicken with skin.  These buzz words had been a selling point on her choice of "snack".

After some "investigating", it was clear that my client was eating more than the serving size of almond that we had discussed in her nutrition counseling session.  (Please note that portion sizes and serving sizes are inconsistent depending on which entity is being used).  For example, I had provided my client with serving sizes based on the Exchange System, developed by the American Diabetes Association and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, which classifies foods into groups based solely on their calorie content.  In the Exchange System, 6 almonds is a serving of fat and contains 45 calories per serving.  On the label of her bag of almonds, a serving was defined as 24 nuts and contains 160 calories per serving.  Although my client could not exactly tell me how many almonds she was consuming per day, she could tell me that she was consuming one 12 ounce bag every week, as she was having to re-purchase them routinely in her weekly trip to the store. (This is the small bag up from the canister, but not the largest bag generally found at most grocery stores).

Here comes the "almond (math) problem"....If I look at the label on the almonds she is purchasing, it indicates that there are 12 servings in a bag, each containing 160 calories, with 130 calories derived from fat.  If she eats the entire bag in 1 week, the caloric cost of those almonds is 1920 calories per week (or 275 calories per day on average) of primarily fat. 

Based on her past and current behavior, let's pretend that my client eats one 12 ounce bag of almonds every week for the next calendar year.  That would be a total of 99,840 calories from almonds.  Just for the fun, I am going to apply the Wishnotsky (1958) model of 1 pound of fat = 3500 calories (which by the way has been recently deemed mathematically inaccurate and over simplified manner of estimating weight loss, but at risk of putting you sleep with mathematical formulas, I am going to use this method to illustrate my point). 

If my client consumes an extra 99, 840 calories from almonds in a year (from consuming one 12 ounce bag per week), the math would be calculated as follows:

99, 840 calories/year       = ~ 28 pounds expected weight GAIN/year
3500 calories/lb of fat

As I mentioned before, every pound of fat does not contain exactly 3500 calories and multiple regression analysis have shown this to be true, I am using this method to illustrate a point. 

My client certainly does NOT want to gain 28 pounds in a year from almonds.  And as she replied. "There not even that good!  I thought that I was making a healthy choice".  Generally, we think it is the "BIG" things in our diet that are causing our "BIG" butts and bellies, but more often than not, it is the "little" snacks and bites that we enjoy that are the culprits!  As I mentioned previously, almonds are a great source of monounsaturated fats, however, it is most important to watch the serving size and the calories respectively!  Happy Eating!