You are all probably thinking that the best food in fighting off diseases are spinach or broccoli. But the best disease fighter you need to be eating more of, is none other than nuts.
Nuts are the super healthy and delicious snack that just might save your life.
In recent research which was published in the journal BMC Medicine, individuals who ate at least a handful of nuts daily faced lower risks of major diseases. These major diseases include cancer, heart disease, and other ailments.
In another study, conducted by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and Imperial College London, the relationship between nut consumption and disease risk were analyzed from 29 published studies.
The study involves more than 815,000 participants worldwide. The findings showed that 20 grams of nuts everyday, or about as much as an average handful, can help in reducing people’s risk of coronary heart diseases by at least 30%, diabetes by nearly 40%, cancer by 15% and premature death from other causes by at least 22%.
What Makes Nuts So Healthy?
Health Benefits of Nuts:
Nuts are rich in fiber, protein, polyunsaturated fats, monounsaturated fats, some vitamins and minerals. While some nuts such as pecans, walnuts and sunflower seeds, are high in antioxidants and phytochemicals.
While the study does not directly link any particular variety of nuts to lowered risks of cancer or other diseases, the researchers did observe that peanuts are linked with a reduced risk of stroke. While tree nuts, such as chestnuts, cashews, macadamia nuts, hazelnuts, pistachios, pecans and walnuts are closely tied with a reduced risk of cancer.
There was a reduced risk of so many different types of outcomes including that of cardiovascular disease overall, coronary heart disease, respiratory disease, mortality from cancer, infections, diabetes and all causes as one of the researchers stated.
If this does not convince you to add more nuts into your diet, the researchers also found that at least 4.5 million premature deaths, could have been prevented had those individuals been eating 20 grams of nuts everyday.
Therefore, there is no reason to avoid nuts and lots of reasons to eat them. If you are not allergic to nuts, then go nuts!