Eat nuts for heart health. Today we explore the nuts and bolts of heart health: How can you improve your health by consuming more nuts (at least for those of us without an allergy to them)?
Many folks think of nuts as junk food snacks. I disagree: Nuts can be an excellent choice if you are after protein, healthy fats, and other health-promoting nutrients. Did you know that people who regularly consume nuts have a lower probability (compared with those who seldom eat them) of suffering from a heart attack or dying from heart disease? Let’s look at the evidence.
The Adventist Study examined over 31,000 non-Hispanic white California Seventh-day Adventists. Researchers obtained extensive diet information at the study start and measures of traditional heart disease risk factors. The subjects who consumed nuts more than four times per week had about half the number of non-fatal and fatal coronary heart disease events than those who ate nuts less than once weekly.
Is one study not enough to convince you to consume nuts for heart health? I offer you the results of an analysis of three extensive prospective studies. Researchers looked at 76,364 women from the Nurses’ Health Study, 92,946 women from the Nurses’ Health Study II, and 41,526 men from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. None had cancer, heart disease, or stroke at baseline. The investigators assessed nut consumption using food frequency questionnaires at baseline and were updated every four years.
Those who had one serving (28 grams) of nuts five or more times per week had a one-fifth drop in coronary heart disease incidence, compared with subjects who ate nuts seldom or never.
Consuming peanuts of nuts at least twice weekly (or walnuts once weekly) yielded a 15 to 23 percent relative drop in risk over the subsequent four years. The study authors concluded that “higher intake of nuts and specific types of nuts (for example, tree nuts, walnuts, and peanuts) is associated with a lower risk of heart disease.”
The nuts and bolts: How nuts miprove heart health
What is it about nuts that provide health benefits? Nuts have vitamins (vitamin E and folate), minerals (calcium, potassium, and magnesium), proteins, fiber, fatty acids, phytochemicals, and antioxidants.
The high-fat content of nuts may give you some pause. Still, nuts are excellent sources of both monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Nuts are also low in unhealthy saturated fats. This combination enhances heart health, with the former fats lowering so-called bad LDL cholesterol.
LDL cholesterol can facilitate the build-up of arterial plaque in a process called atherosclerosis. This plaque can lead to coronary heart disease. Now that you know that nuts can reduce bad cholesterol, you should also know another benefit.
With their high antioxidant content, nuts can help us reduce inflammation in our bodies. The arginine within nuts can help us maintain healthy blood vessels and blood pressure. A review of 61 studies revealed that nuts lower total cholesterol, bad LDL cholesterol, ApoB, and triglycerides.
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