Nuts and nutrition.
Nuts
have many unique and health benefits and taste great. High in protein, fiber
and antioxidants. The protein in nuts helps you feel full longer which
results in you eating less. Recent studies have shown that consuming one
ounce of nuts daily reduce the risk of developing diabetes.
The FDA recommends a
daily serving of one ounce of nuts (approximately two tablespoons).
"Scientific evidence suggests, but does not prove, that eating 1.5 ounces
per day of most nuts, as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol
and not resulting in increased caloric intake, may reduce the risk of
coronary heart disease. See nutrition information for fat content."
But the exact way in
which nuts help reduce heart disease risk may not be due solely to the
"good" fats found in nuts. Nuts are good sources of many other nutrients,
such as dietary fiber, several B vitamins, antioxidant vitamin E, magnesium
and copper. In a recent article, researchers from the Pennsylvania State
University suggest that the cholesterol lowering effect of nuts is about 25%
higher than would be expected based solely on the "good" fat content of
nuts. It appears that besides the "good" fats in nuts, one or more of these
other nutrients may help provide the additional cholesterol lowering
benefit, hence heart protective effects. More study is needed in this area,
but the preliminary results are interesting.
While the research on
nuts' beneficial effects on heart health is positive, nuts are still a
calorifically dense food. For that reason, it's important not only to
substitute them in place of foods that contain higher amounts of saturated
fat, but to do so without increasing the total number of calories in your
diet that you need to maintain a healthy body weight.
