Individuals that consume nuts, such as walnuts, peanuts, and tree nuts, on a regular basis have lower risk of developing coronary heart disease or cardiovascular disease when compared to individuals who don’t, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. This study was to investigate the frequency of nut consumption in regards to the incidences of cardiovascular disease, and is possibly the largest of its kind.
Today’s recommendations for dietary intake and consumption have recently started to shift towards diets with less quantities of animal based foods and higher amounts of plant based foods, with most having diets patterns including nuts due to their association with reduced cardiovascular risk factors and unique nutritional make up.
In the past studies only focused on nut consumption as a whole. In this study researchers also investigated the links between specific types of nuts with cardiovascular events, peanuts although a legume were included as they have similar nutrient and fatty acid profile as other nuts. The study involved over 210,000 people from the Nurses’ Health Study and the Nurses’ Heath Study II and men from the Health Professionals Follow-up study, with up to 32 years of follow up. All 3 groups data was collected via self administered questionnaires done every 2 years that included information on lifestyle, health conditions, and medical history.
Individuals who consumed 5 or more servings of nuts per week had 20% lower risk of coronary heart disease with a 14% lower risk of cardiovascular disease than those of which who almost never or did not consume nuts. Similar results were noted when accounting for the consumption of walnuts, tree nuts, and peanuts individually. There was no evidence found of association between risk of stroke and total nut consumption, but eating walnuts and peanuts was inversely associated with it, tree nuts and peanut butter were not associated with it.
There are several limitations to be noted involved in this study, such as the sample size was limited to all white health professionals, and that the nut intake was self reported, so the influence of methods could not be tested. Researchers note that results may be generalized to different ethnicities because the underlying mechanisms should all be the same.
Emilio Ros, MD, PHD of Endocrinology and Nutrition confirmed that the findings strongly suggest a connection between the consumption of nuts and protection from heart disease, but there needs to be more research done.
