The largest study of its kind has found that people who eat a handful of nuts every day live longer than those people who do not eat them at all. The results were recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Scientists from Dana-Farber Institute, the Harvard School of Public Health, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital came to this conclusion after looking at data on almost 120,000 people over a period of 30 years.
Senior author Charles S. Fuchs, director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Treatment Center at Dana-Farber and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School said, “The most obvious benefit was a reduction of 29% in deaths from heart disease – the major killer of people in America. But we also saw a significant reduction – 11% – in the risk of dying from cancer.
The study also found that regular nut eaters were usually slimmer than those who ate no nuts challenging the idea that eating nuts leads to weight gain.
The researchers also found that the reduced risk of death was comparable for both nuts that grow on trees, like cashews, and peanuts, which grow under the ground. Other types of tree nuts include almonds, hazelnuts, macadamias, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios and walnuts.
Eating nuts has also been linked with lower cholesterol, reductions in inflammation, oxidative stress, body fat, and insulin resistance.
The researchers based their findings on eating just a handful of nuts each day – approximately one ounce, which is roughly the amount found in a small packet of peanuts from a vending machine.
So, while you’re waiting to dig into your Thanksgiving meal tomorrow, why not have a few nuts. They’ll curb your hunger pangs, they taste great, and they’re good for your body! Medical New Today 11/20/13
P.S. One reader points out that this is good news if you don’t have nut allergies….