Are nuts a good source of protein?

I first had this argument just a couple of years into my PT career.
–
And as you can see from the picture, for every 100g plain pea nuts you get 26g protein.
–
Which is only just a few grams short of a chicken breast for the same weight.
–
Which sounds great! Good protein source.
–
But surely a better way to look at the viability of nuts as a protein source is to look at the kcals of energy you also consume when eating them.
–
In this case, you ingest just under 22kcals for every gram of protein recieved, whereas you get 5kcals for every gram of protein from the chicken breast.
–
And that is because for 1 every gram of protein you get from a nut you also consume around 2 grams of fat.
–
Making them very calorific.
–
And that’s fine. They are high fat, near on 50%, and very nutritious.
–
But were not talking about the nutritional density. Both are nutritious.
–
This is a comment on the efficiency of nuts as a protein source. Not on how nourishing and healthy they are.
–
I eat 200g protein per day. If that was all to come from nuts I’d be eating 4330kcals. From chicken breast I’d be eating 986kcals.
–
In my opinion, nuts are a great nourishing fat source first, with a little side line in protein.
–
But should always be considered as a fat source as they are primarily made up of fat and therefore gram for gram very calorific.
–
We gain fat mass when we over eat, calorie surplus, even if that’s from healthy food.
–
Nuts have the ability to add hundreds of calories to you diet if you eat alot of them, which means it’s easier to over eat and gain weight.
–
Therefore, be aware of the amount you are eating and consider them a source of fat, not protein, as there are much more calorie efficient ways of getting your protein requirement than relying on nuts.
–
Dan