Nuts Could Make Your Heart Healthier

13 November, New Delhi

“Just one and half ounce of nuts per day (about 1/3 cup) can provide many of the important vitamins, minerals and energy we need throughout the day,” says Maureen Ternus, Executive Director of the International Tree Nut Council Nutrition Research & Education Foundation (INC NREF).

“This new analysis provides further support that nuts can and should be part of a heart-healthy diet,” says Ternus quoting a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

In course of the study, researchers performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled trials to investigate the effects of tree nuts (almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamias, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios and walnuts) on blood lipids, lipoproteins, blood pressure and inflammation in adults 18 years and older who did not suffer any cardiovascular disease (CVD).

”Our findings, showing that nut intake lowers LDL cholesterol, ApoB-and triglycerides in clinical trials, provide mechanistic evidence to support this relationship,” said lead author Liana Del Gobbo, PhD, currently a researcher in Cardiovascular Medicine at Stanford University.

Interestingly, stronger effects for ApoB (Apolipoprotein B) were observed in populations with type-2 diabetes which senior author of the study Dariush Mozaffarian of Tufts University maintains can provide even better information about risk of heart disease than LDL concentrations.
The new findings suggest that eating nuts may be especially important for lowering cardiovascular risk in the setting of diabetes or insulin resistance.

Nuts, the researchers found, contain important nutrients such as unsaturated fats, high quality protein, vitamins (i.e., vitamin E folate and niacin), minerals (such as magnesium, calcium and potassium) and phytochemicals – all of which may offer cardio-protective properties.