What’s the Healthier Snack: Fruit or Nuts?

Fruit and nuts are healthy — a simple statement that’s hard to disagree with. But when it comes to the question of which is best, things become quite a bit more complicated.

‘Healthier’ in what way? ‘Better’ for what?

It should come as no surprise that different fruits and nuts do different things, and each can be great depending on the time and situation they’re consumed in.

Here’s a look at a few common fitness scenarios and the snacks best suited to them.

A sweet-craving keto dieter

Berries

Berries are sweet and delicious, so it’s easy to see why so many people assume that they’re chock-full of sugar.

As a matter of fact, though, berries are among the least sugary, most fibre-rich, fruits out there.

100g of blackberries contains 4.88g of sugar and 5.3g of total dietary fibre¹. For raspberries, that number per 100g is 4.42g of sugar and 6.5g of fibre², while 100g of strawberries — possibly the sweetest berry of them all -- nets you 4.89g of sugar and 2.0g of dietary fibre³.

This low sugar content makes berries the ideal sweet-treat and nutrient-bomb for any dessert-lover on a ketogenic diet who’s carefully counting their carbs.

A bulker struggling to get in the extra calories

Walnuts

Walnuts are a delicious crumbly snack, and undeniably one of the easiest types of nuts to gorge yourself on in a single sitting. Like all nuts, they’ve got a great nutrient profile, boasting enormous quantities of Omega 3 fatty acids, as well as nutrients like calcium, magnesium, and potassium.

They also contain a whopping 654 calories per 100g⁴, with almost all of that being in the form of healthy, satiating fats.

For the bulker or hard-gainer who can’t seem to eat enough no matter what, a few handfuls of walnuts will prove more than enough to get the job done.

A fitness fanatic gearing up for / down from a workout

Bananas

Bananas are one of the most filling fruits by far. A snack perfectly suited to the busy-but-health-conscious man or woman on the go; they’re also famously high in the mineral potassium.

Bananas happen to be one of the most calorie and sugar-dense fruits out there, with 100g of banana containing a whopping 89 calories and 12.23g of sugar⁵. The sugars in bananas are simple, and combined with the incredibly low fat and protein contents of the fruit (0.33g fat and 1.09g protein per 100g) they digest rapidly.

Bananas are the perfect food for getting a quick sugar release pre- or post-workout, either to top-up or replenish the body’s glycogen stores for a max effort endeavour, or to begin recovering following one.

¹ https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/2161?fgcd=&manu=&lfacet=&format=&count=&max=50&offset=&sort=default&order=asc&qlookup=09042&ds=&qt=&qp=&qa=&qn=&q=&ing=

² https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/2374?fgcd=&manu=&lfacet=&format=&count=&max=50&offset=&sort=default&order=asc&qlookup=09302&ds=&qt=&qp=&qa=&qn=&q=&ing=

³ https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/2385?fgcd=&manu=&lfacet=&format=&count=&max=50&offset=&sort=default&order=asc&qlookup=09316&ds=&qt=&qp=&qa=&qn=&q=&ing=

⁴ https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/3690?fgcd=&manu=&lfacet=&format=&count=&max=50&offset=&sort=default&order=asc&qlookup=12155&ds=&qt=&qp=&qa=&qn=&q=&ing=

⁵ https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/2159?fgcd=&manu=&lfacet=&format=&count=&max=50&offset=&sort=default&order=asc&qlookup=09040&ds=&qt=&qp=&qa=&qn=&q=&ing=