Walnut

     Perhaps the only product, which has played in the history of architecture the role not less, than in the cooking, is the walnut. There is direct relation between this nut and ... caryatids. Greek legend tells that the god of winemaking Dionysus fell in love with a girl named Kariya. When she died, he transformed her into walnut. Goddess Artemis ordered to build a temple in memory of Carie. Columns of the temple, carved out of wood in the form of young women were named caryatids. Moreover, now one of the areas of Turkey and white walnut tree from the family of nuts are called by the name of Greek god one's love.

     The first mention of walnuts have appeared more than four thousand years ago. In Mesopotamia clay tablets with inscriptions were found, the contents of which suggests that walnuts are grown in the famous hanging gardens of Babylon. So it is no exaggeration to call walnut one of the wonders of the world, as the Babylonian gardens were considered as such. 
  

     By caloric content walnut can be compared with meat or oils, fats account for almost 75%, and by the number of vitamins, it surpasses citrus 50 times and black currant - eight times. In ancient times it was believed that walnuts stimulated intellectual activity. This explains why priests in Babylon prohibited ordinary people to eat walnuts. They were not afraid that the mob could eat all the nuts in the state, just only superiors allowed to be clever in Babylon. Some other people have inherited this tradition from the Babylonian priests. All parts of the plant contain a lot of biologically active substances: bark - steroids, alkaloids, vitamin C, tannins, quinones; leaves - aldehydes, essential oil, alkaloids, vitamins C, PP, carotene, tannins, coumarins, flavonoids, anthocyanins, quinones and high aromatic hydrocarbons, pericarp - organic acids, vitamin C, carotene, phenol acids, tannins, coumarins and quinones.

     The green nuts contain vitamins C, B1, B2, PP, carotene and quinone, mature - sitosterols, vitamins C, B1, B2, PP, carotene, tannins, quinones and fatty oil, which is composed of linoleic, linolenic, oleic, palmitic and Other acids, as well as cellulose, salts of iron and cobalt. Shell has phenic acids, tannins and coumarins; pellicula (thin brown skin covering the fruit) - steroids, phenol acids, tannins and coumarins. In the leaves of walnut amount of vitamin C gradually increases and reaches a peak in mid-growing season. The primary value of the leaves is a large number of carotene. They also contain vitamins B1, tannins and dye, which has bactericidal action, traces of essential oil.

 
     Despite the large fat content, walnuts helped to reduce the level of cholesterol in blood, at least, this is true for men. Several years ago, America had carried out the experiment with the participation of a group of volunteers. Their daily diet contained 20% of calories as a result of the use of walnuts. It was found that the cholesterol content of the participants of experience has decreased by 12%, while the so-called «bad» cholesterol - still more.

 
     Of course, all these amazing properties of walnuts would not cause such interest among the people, if they were not still very tasty - the thing that cannot be said about all the useful products. Fortunately, benefit and taste perfectly combine with each other, so walnuts are presented in absolute majority of the world's cookings. For example, one of the most famous Mexican dishes - sweet peppers with nut sauce. The salad of oranges and walnuts is very popular in Morocco.

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