Ding Dong Mixed Nuts

By: Tanya Taylor, PhD | Dec 23, 2005

I am currently in New York with the family for the Christmas holidays - very different from Auburn, Alabama - I'll tell you that. One of the things I was looking forward to upon getting back to New York was visiting more 'ethnic' food stores and places like Trader Joe's, where I could get a wider variety of foods than I can get from the local WalMart, Kroger, and Winn Dixie. My first stop was the Asian grocery store around the corner and I grabbed a few packs of Ding Dong 5-in-1 Mixed Nuts - a product from the Philippines. I can hear the screams piercing the icy wind chilled streets - "Mixed nuts is not ethnic" you say. Oh but it is when the nuts are really a combination of peanuts with peas and beans.

Nuts are often thought of as a healthy option because they have 'good' unsaturated fats, but I don't totally agree with this. Nuts have a lot of fat, and unless you eat just a handful, then you will be consuming too much fat - too much of a good thing can be bad, in my opinion. Ding Dong, produced by JBC Foods, isn't composed of the regular old nuts like peanuts, almonds, cashews, and pecans like Planters Mixed Nuts. Nope - our friends from the Philippines made these with crunchy corn bits, dried green peas, broad beans (also known as fava beans), peanuts and crunchy cracker nuts. All these nuts/ peas/ beans together give a very crunchy texture and great taste, especially since they added salt, sugar, garlic and onion powder. The combination of spices really enhanced the taste. But for those who have a problem with MSG - it is present in this product. (For more on MSG and what it's all about, check this reference).

A pack of Ding Dong Mixed Nuts contains 100 grams of nuts, but 1 serving is 15 grams (literally just a handful). which has 80 calories, 4 grams of fat, 2 grams saturated fat (10% of the RDA), 2 grams of sugar and a low 90 milligrams of sodium. Did I mention that a pack of Ding Dong Mixed Nuts only costs 50 cents?!

I'll be honest, I didn't have the entire packet in one sitting, but I can see that it is very possible. I would say that I had about one third of the pack, which is about 190 calories, 18% of the RD for total fat and 30% for saturated fat. These are quite addictive so be sure to practice portion control and then these will be one of the lowest calorie snacks you have. It's also very cheap at $0.50 for 1 bag. Snack on 1 pack throughout the day, and you're looking at a total of 560 calories (7 servings).

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