Benefits of eating nuts

Turns out, eating Brazil nuts and other varieties of nuts daily may prevent weight gain and provide other cardiovascular benefits.

Two separate studies presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2018 in Chicago tried to show the benefits of eating nuts daily.

One study analyzed the influence of eating nuts and peanuts on long-term body weight in U.S. men and women. The other study examined whether eating Brazil nuts could increase a sense of fullness and improve glucose and insulin responses.

In the analysis of nuts’ impact on weight, researchers followed health professionals who were free of chronic disease at the start of the study. They found that eating one one-ounce serving of any type of nuts or peanuts, in place of foods generally considered low in nutritional value, was associated with a lower risk of long-term weight gain and obesity.

Nut consumption was assessed through a food-frequency questionnaire submitted to participants every four years in three different established study groups of 25,394 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, 53,541 women in the Nurse’s Health Study and 47,255 women in the Nurse’s Health Study II in follow-up research.

The findings revealed that eating a daily serving of any type of nut or peanuts was associated with less risk of weight gain or becoming obese over the four-year intervals.

It also showed that substituting one serving a day of any type of nuts in place of one serving of red meat, processed meat, french fries, desserts or potato chips was associated with less weight gain over the four-year intervals.

A serving of nuts is defined as one ounce of whole nuts or two tablespoons of nut butter. “People often see nuts as food items high in fat and calories, so they hesitate to consider them as healthy snacks, but they are in fact associated with less weight gain and wellness,” said first author of the study, Xiaoran Liu.

The Scientist