Nuttiness!

The muckety-mucks up in business/first class on my flight to St. Louis today were among the fortunate people to receive food on my flight. I had a turkey wrap, which came with crackers, cheese spread, pasta salad, and apple sauce cookies. (I ate the wrap, put the cookies aside for future consumption if I got desperate, and left the rest.) Most importantly, it also came with a small cup of warm nuts.

Ever since I had the good fortunate of my first upgrade to business class on a flight to London (courtesy of Husband, natch), I have been obsessed with the cup of warm nuts. They seem to give it out no matter how short the flight, and it is filled with cashews, almonds, pistachios, and walnuts, although really 90% of the cup is cashews because everyone loves cashews. I know I sure do.

The problem with cashews, though, is that they are full of fat and very little else. (The only nuts with less nutritional value than cashews, which coincidentally are also the only nuts tastier than cashews as well, are macadamia nuts. Those are basically pure fat. And did you know that macadamias are only mostly grown in Hawaii, where Jim Neighbors has the largest macadamia plantation on the island? Useless, but fun trivia, I know.) Almonds have many nutrients and are beneficial to eat in small amounts. I think walnuts also have a few good things about them (although I personally find them gross). I don’t know about pistachios. The cashew industry does not even try and pretend that cashews are good for you, like the peanut industry does. (And yes, I know that peanuts do have nutritional benefits and can be enjoyed in small amounts, too.)

As I munched on the cashews in my warm nut cup on the plane, I wished that there were more almonds. I also decided that the cashew industry should adopt my awesome slogan: “The growers of cashews know that cashews have little nutritional content, but our nuts are the tastiest you can bite into.” I’m fairly sure that this would dramatically increase their sales. Am I right or what?