Eating several small servings of nuts each week may significantly lower your risk of heart attack or stroke, according to a new study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
In one of the largest studies to date about the health benefits of nuts, researchers analyzed data from more than 210,000 health professionals over as many as 32 years. They found that, compared with those who never or almost never ate nuts, people who ate one ounce of nuts five or more times per week had a 14% lower risk of cardiovascular disease and a 20% lower risk of coronary heart disease during the study period.
Both walnuts and peanuts were linked with lower disease risk, the study found. No heart benefits were associated with eating peanut butter—which could be because people tend to pair peanut butter with unhealthy foods or because peanut butter is often mixed with salt and sweeteners, possibly canceling out the positive health benefits of the peanuts, according to an editorial accompanying the study.
Marta Guasch-Ferré, a research fellow in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard Chan School and lead author of the study, said in a November 13, 2017 article in Consumer Reports that it’s a good idea to incorporate a variety of nuts into your diet because each type has different nutrients.
Other Harvard Chan authors of the study included Xiaoran Liu, Vasanti Malik, Qi Sun, Walter Willett, JoAnn Manson, Kathryn Rexrode, Yanping Li, Frank Hu, and senior author Shilpa Bhupathiraju.
Read the Consumer Reports article: Are Nuts Good For You?
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Nuts for the Heart (Nutrition Source)