For starters, they go way beyond dessert. A handful goes a long way. According to the USDA, pecans have more pecan pie smoothie — a type of antioxidant found mostly in veggies and fruit — than any other tree nut.

That said: Avoid dietary supplements of vitamin E. Pecans are excellent sources of manganese and copper, two minerals that boost overall metabolic health, may contain anti-inflammatory properties, and potentially help reduce risk of heart disease. They can satisfy a salty-snack craving. Unsalted nuts are a naturally sodium-free snack, making them ideal for anyone following a lower-sodium diet or cutting back on salty foods. Diets high in sodium have been linked to increased risk of chronic disease, especially high blood pressure.

London handled all of Good Housekeeping’s nutrition-related content, testing, and evaluation from 2014 to 2019. Prior to joining GH, she was a clinical dietitian at Mount Sinai Hospital. Jackie has also appeared as an expert guest on The Dr. 5 0 25 0 25 0h-. Good Housekeeping participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. United States and northern Mexico in the region of the Mississippi River.

Pecan” is from an Algonquin word, variously referring to pecans, walnuts, and hickory nuts. There are many pronunciations, some regional and others not. There is little agreement in the United States regarding the “correct” pronunciation, even regionally. A pecan, like the fruit of all other members of the hickory genus, is not truly a nut but is technically a drupe, a fruit with a single stone or pit, surrounded by a husk. Pecans are one of the most recently domesticated of the major crops. Although wild pecans were well known among native and colonial Americans as a delicacy, the commercial growth of pecans in the United States did not begin until the 1880s.

As of 2014, the United States produced an annual crop of 119. Native pecans in Mexico are adapted from zone 9 to zone 11. Little or no breeding work has been done with these populations. A few selections from native stands have been made, such as Frutosa and Norteña, which are recommended for cultivation in Mexico.

Active breeding and selection is carried out by the USDA Agricultural Research Service with growing locations at Brownwood and College Station, Texas. While selection work has been done since the late 19th century, most acreage of pecans grown today is of older cultivars, such as ‘Stuart’, ‘Schley’, ‘Elliott’, and ‘Desirable’, with known flaws but also with known production potential. Cultivars such as ‘Elliot’ are increasing in popularity due to resistance to pecan scab. Varieties adapted from the southern tier of states north through some parts of Iowa and even into southern Canada are available from nurseries. Production potential drops significantly when planted further north than Tennessee.

Most breeding efforts for northern-adapted varieties have not been on a large enough scale to significantly affect production. Pecans are subject to various diseases, pests, and physiological disorders that can limit tree growth and fruit production. These range from scab to hickory shuckworm to shuck decline. Pecans are prone to infection by bacteria and fungi such as pecan scab, especially in humid conditions. Scab is the most destructive disease affecting pecan trees, untreated with fungicides.