In Brazil, they are more commonly called castanha-do-Pará (meaning chestnuts from Pará in Portuguese), and other names are also used. So foreigners call them “Brazil nuts”, Brazilians call them “Castanhas do Pará”, right? Well, not exactly. Most Brazilians traditionally called them Castanhas do Pará, but people in the northern state of Acre (which actually produces more nuts than Pará) call them (you guessed it) Castanhas do Acre. Apparently, some people even call them Castanhas da Amazônia to reflect the fact that they are found throughout the Amazon basin.
Despite their name, Brazil's biggest exporter of walnuts is not Brazil but Bolivia, where they are called chestnuts or Brazil nuts. In Brazil, these nuts are called castanhas-do-Pará (literally “chestnuts from Pará”), but the people of Acre call them castanhas-do-acre instead. Indigenous names include juvia in the Orinoco area. Brazil's walnut trees produce fruit almost exclusively in virgin forests, since altered forests lack the large-bodied bees that are the only ones capable of pollinating the tree's flowers.
Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa), also called Pará nut, the edible seed of a large South American tree (Lecythidaceae family) found in the Amazonian forests of Brazil, Peru, Colombia and Ecuador. Many forest communities rely on the collection and sale of nuts from Brazil as a vital and sustainable source of income, and sweet nuts provide protein and calories to tribal, rural and even urban Brazilians. Unfortunately, they don't last long when fresh, so the rest of us have to settle for nuts that have undergone a drying process. Brazil nuts are related to other tropical trees appreciated for their fruits and nuts, such as the cannonball tree (Couroupita guianensis), the anchovy pear (Grias cauliflora) and the monkey pot (Lecythis species).
The flower of the Brazil nut is large, approximately two inches in diameter and fleshy, and the male part of the flower has a structure not found in any other plant family in the world. Brazil's walnut trees (Bertholletia excelsa) are enormous, growing to 50 meters and living 500 years or more. Brazil nuts contain 14% protein, 12% carbohydrates and 66% fat by weight; 85% of their calories come from fat. In 1980, annual production was around 40,000 tons per year in Brazil alone, and in 1970, Brazil harvested 104,487 tons of nuts, it was reported.
The “Brazil nut” effect describes the tendency of larger products to occupy the top of a mix of products of various sizes but with similar densities, such as Brazil nuts mixed with peanuts. It is Brazilians like you who are making Brazil lose its wealth by disrespecting the customs, traditions and history of their own country. The justification given for the name change was that the walnuts came from several different Brazilian states and I suppose they wanted everyone to decide on a single name. These nuts also improve the immune system, stimulate growth and repair, improve the digestive process, reduce the risk of cancer and increase male fertility.
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