Walnuts Help to Lower Diabetes Risk

Walnuts are rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, with previous studies suggesting their consumption helps to improve various cardiometabolic risk factors. Frank Hu, from Harvard School of Public Health (Massachusetts, USA), and colleagues investigated the association between walnut intake and incident type 2 diabetes in 2 large cohort studies: the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) and NHS II. The researchers prospectively followed 58,063 women, ages 52-77 years in NHS (1998-2008) and 79,893 women, ages 35-52 years in NHS II (1999-2009) without diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or cancer at the study’s respective starts.  Dietary habits were closely monitored, including the frequency at which they subjects consumed nuts – particularly walnuts.  The team revealed that women who consumed walnuts two or three times a week lowered their risk of developing type-2 diabetes by 24%.    Further, the data suggested that the consumption of total nuts also inversely associated with risk of type-2 diabetes.  The study authors conclude that: “Our results suggest that higher walnut consumption is associated with a significantly lower risk of type 2 diabetes in women.”