Imagine this: eating just a handful of nuts every day could significantly lower your risk of heart disease, cancer, and even premature death.
Sounds too good to be true? Well, researchers from Imperial College London and other institutions have found just that.
Their study is pretty extensive. They looked at all the current research on how eating nuts affects your risk of getting sick. The magic number they found was 20 grams of nuts daily. That’s about the same as a small handful.
Eating this amount could reduce your risk of heart disease by nearly 30%, cancer risk by 15%, and the chances of dying early by 22%.
But that’s not all. They also found that eating at least 20 grams of nuts every day can cut the risk of dying from respiratory disease by about half and reduce the risk of diabetes by nearly 40%.
To get these results, the team analyzed 29 studies with up to 819,000 participants. This included over 12,000 cases of heart disease, 9,000 stroke cases, 18,000 cases of cardiovascular disease and cancer, and more than 85,000 deaths.
What they found was pretty consistent: eating nuts was linked to a lower risk of many diseases.
The study didn’t just focus on one type of nut. It included all kinds of tree nuts like hazelnuts and walnuts, and also peanuts, which are technically legumes. The benefits were similar regardless of the type of nut or peanut eaten.
So, what makes nuts so special? They’re packed with good stuff like fiber, magnesium, and polyunsaturated fats. These nutrients are great for your heart and can help lower cholesterol levels.
Plus, some nuts, like walnuts and pecan nuts, are loaded with antioxidants, which can help fight off damage to your cells and might lower cancer risk.
Even though nuts are quite high in fat, they’re also full of fiber and protein. There’s some evidence that nuts might even help in not gaining weight over time.
Interestingly, the study also found that eating more than 20 grams of nuts per day doesn’t seem to provide additional health benefits.
This study, led by Dagfinn Aune and published in BMC Medicine, is a great reminder of how simple changes in our diet, like adding a handful of nuts, can make a big difference to our health.
If you care about heart disease, please read studies that herbal supplements could harm your heart rhythm, and how eating eggs can help reduce heart disease risk.
For more information about heart health, please see recent studies about new way to prevent heart attacks and strokes, and results showing this drug for heart disease may reduce COVID-19 risk.
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