Matthew Dewey, age 13, of Meridian, Miss., for his question:
ARE NUTS NUTRITIOUS?
Prehistoric people were the first to discover that nuts were nutritious. They could be picked easily from trees oz shrubs and carried from place to place. They could also be stored for long periods of time.
Nuts are concentrated foods. They have large numbers of nutrients, in comparison to their small size. They are high is fat and protein content and generally contain only a moderate supply of carbohydrates. Some nuts, such as chestnuts, coconuts and acorns, are high in carbohydrates.
Walnuts end pecans have large amounts of Vitamin A. Almost all nuts have a limited quantity of other vitamins.
In popular horticulture and commercial usage, any one seeded fruit with a kennel and a shell may be called a nut. The list of nuts is then greatly expanded to include the peanut, Brazil nut, coconut, almond, pine nut, macadamia and many more that would be defined botanically another way.
The botanist's definition of the nut is very restrictive: It is a one seeded fruit that does not split open when mature. It is made up of an inner kennel surrounded by an outer hard, woody shell. Thus some botanists consider only acorns, hazelnuts, beechnuts and a few others to be true nuts.
Nuts are used mainly as delicacies. They are eaten raw, roasted or combined with ingredients in candies and pastries. They are also eaten as nut butters oz pastes.
The peanut is actually an annual legume that is native to South America. In the United States, it is grown mainly for use as a food. It is also widely grown in Africa, China and India, where much of the crop is crushed to obtain edible oils.
Almonds are perhaps the most popular of all food nuts. They are grown in warmer parts of the temperate zones of the United States (California), Italy, Spain, China and Iran.
Another popular nut is the walnut. Many of these are also grown in California.
Almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts and pistachios were brought from the Middle East to the Mediterranean region and finally to the Americas. But the world supplies of some nuts still come mainly from wild trees, including coconuts, Brazil nuts, African and Brazilian oil palm nuts, acorns and chestnuts.
About one half of the U.S. crop of pecans comes from wild trees. they are native to the southeastern part of the United States and can be found as far north as southern Ohio and Illinois. Pecan trees grow large and tail, especially in bottom lands near rivets. Many orchards have now been planted in the warmer parts of the country.
Cashews are grown on tropical evergreen trees native to Central America, but India today produces the greatest amounts. The nuts are also grown commercially in western Africa.
Tung nuts, grown on trees that are native to China, now also come from the southern part of the United States. The nuts are a source of industrial oil used in paints and varnishes