Four Nuts To Go Nuts For!

Nuts are definitely one of the healthiest snacks, and as it turns out, they are also very helpful for heart health, weight loss and simply benefit the entire body.

The Most Popular Nuts In The US Today

As you can see, peanuts are by far the favorite, and other tree nuts like Almonds and Walnuts, while popular, are consumed at quite a low rate compared to peanuts.

A lot of data has been released over the past few years showing how impressive tree nuts are for heart health.

A recent study has shown a consistent 30 to 50% lower risk of heart attack, sudden cardiac death, or cardiovascular disease associated with simply eating nuts several times a week! That is not a small number – it’s HUGE!

Eating several servings of nuts all through the week can also lessen risks of heart failure.

Of course there are caveats. It’s not like you can eat Burger King five nights a week, and have a handful of nuts and stop heart disease.  Your overall diet still is the greatest risk factor.

But, even if you eat only marginally well, simply adding more nuts into your diet can provide a serious dose of heart and circulatory benefits.

---

How Potent Are Nuts for Heart Health?

• Eating a serving of nuts one to three times a month could lower those risks of heart troubles by three percent.
• Eating nuts once or twice a week showed a 12 percent reduced risk.
• Eating nuts 3 or more times per week reduced risk by 18 percent!

So basically even eating a few servings of nuts a week can provide a 1/5th reduction alone. That’s amazing! So what could eating marginally healthy + daily consumption of nuts do?

---

What Makes Nuts So Healthy?

Simply put, nuts are loaded with proteins, very healthy fats, minerals, and antioxidants – all of which are linked to better cardiovascular health.

Below, we can see the absolute nutritional power many tree nuts provide, with almonds providing the most complete profile.

“Even a small increase in nut consumption may lead to a significant reduction in the incidence of atrial fibrillation and heart failure in the population.”

William Willet – Doctor, Cardiovascular Researcher

---

4 Nuts That Offer The Most Nutritional Benefits

 

1. Almonds

Adding almonds to your diet lowers your LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol), which creates plaque in your coronary arteries that can lead to heart attacks.

Almonds also lower LDL in a dose-dependent manner. This means that according to studies, the more almonds you eat, the more positive benefits can be seen.

Clinical studies also show almonds can also reduce your risk of insulin resistance and diabetes. Even if you have diabetes, adding almonds to your diet can improve your sensitivity to insulin.

Almonds can also increase the effects of weight loss. In one study, adding 84 gm, or about 3 ounces (oz) of almonds a day improved weight loss and resulted in a 14 percent decrease in waist circumference.

Another study published in 2015 looked at cholesterol and body fat in people who ate 1.5 oz of almonds a day. In only six weeks, people who consumed almonds had lower LDL cholesterol by an average of 5 mg/dL. They also had less belly and leg fat.

There are also several studies showing eating almonds lowers body inflammation.

---

2. Pistachios

Adding pistachios to your diet also has many heart benefits.

A study of people who ate approximately 1.5 oz of pistachios a day, and who were then exposed to mental stress, found they had significantly lower blood pressure increases than those who did not.

In people with diabetes, eating pistachios lowered total cholesterol  as well as LDL (bad) cholesterol helping reduce the risk of disease in the arteries.

In another study, a four-week trial of patients who had diabetes, and began eating a diet rich in pistachios (about 6 to 10 gm/day) showed improved heart rate response to stress, lower blood pressure, and improved overall heart function.

If you are looking to lower your blood pressure, improve your response to stress, and lower your cholesterol, consider adding pistachios to your diet.

 

---

3. Walnuts

Most nuts contain a high concentration of healthy fat. Walnuts are one of the fattiest, composed of 47 percent polyunsaturated fatty acids, which in general is a very “good fat.”

But while most nuts contain polyunsaturated fatty acids, walnuts are the only ones with a significant amount of a certain type of fat called “alpha-linoleic acid” (ALA).

Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) is an essential, omega-3 fatty acid.

A diet rich in ALA has been shown to reduce the risk of many chronic diseases, including heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and even cancer. Alpha-linoleic acid also acts as an anti-inflammatory agent and has actually been shown to help reduce plaque buildup in coronary arteries.

Consumption of walnuts also significantly reduced the level of apolipoprotein B,  (ApoB) is a very bad lipoprotein that is involved in development of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease.

If you are at high risk for coronary artery disease (CAD) or already have it, consider adding walnuts to your diet.

---

4. Peanuts & Peanut Butter

Botanically speaking, peanuts are considered a legume (like beans), however for culinary and nutritional purposes, peanuts are considered a nut.

Peanuts actually grow underground as opposed to nuts like walnuts, almonds, etc. that grow on trees.

Peanuts, along with beans and peas, belong to the single plant family, “Leguminosae”.

Legumes are basically edible seeds enclosed in pods. As a group, they provide some of the best sources of concentrated protein in the plant kingdom.

Many studies have shown eating peanuts, including (good quality) peanut butter, can reduce heart disease risk.

One of these studies found that women who consumed peanuts and peanut butter regularly lowered their risk of heart disease by up to 34 percent! And like almonds, the greatest benefit was in those who ate peanuts multiple times a week.

In a study of 6,309 women with diabetes, eating one serving of peanuts (28 gm/1 oz. or 16 gm/1 tablespoon of peanut butter five times a week or more lowered risk of heart disease by 44 percent.

Eating peanuts and (good quality) peanut butter has also been shown to lower risk of diabetes in both lean and overweight women.

Finally, like many other nuts, peanuts can help lower your cholesterol, particularly when added to other healthy diet choices.

Remember if you prefer peanut butter, opt for those with only 1 ingredient – ‘peanuts’. Most large store brands like Skippy and Jif use terrible oils and sugars that basically negate the benefits of the actual peanuts!

You may be asking: Are peanuts better than tree nuts?

A recent study looked at this question, specifically diets rich in peanuts versus tree nuts. This study shed some light on the potential greater benefit of tree nuts compared to peanuts.

In 803 adults, abdominal obesity, blood pressure, and cholesterol where all better controlled in those who had a high intake of tree nuts. However, if you ate a lot of tree nuts (almonds, walnuts etc), it didn’t seem to matter how many peanuts you ate.

The most striking difference in the study was that high consumption of tree nuts did not increase risk of abdominal obesity, whereas high consumption of peanuts alone did.

---

Can You Eat too Many Nuts?

As with anything in life, the answer is yes. 

But this also depends on your diet overall. Those that indulge in sugar and bad fats, will benefits from the addition of nuts, but eating too many can result in weight gain, due to the other elements of your diet.

Nuts are very good sources of energy, and if you eat too much you can gain weight and offset the heart benefits. We recommend adding nuts to an already heart-healthy diet or as an alternative healthy snack.

If you change your snacks alone to unsalted nuts you will be surprised how effective that choice is in helping with weight loss and cholesterol management.

One thing to keep in mind is that some people can experience dangerous allergic reactions to nuts. If you have a potential allergy or a family history of nut allergies, don’t consider using nuts until you talk with your doctor.

---

Bottom Line

Nuts Are A True Gift, Start Eating Them Daily!