Nuts for Health With so

Nuts for Health

With so many different products on television being advertised for their wholesome and naturally derived ingredients with amazing health benefits, it can be difficult to tell the truly healthy foods from the ones simply hiding behind a lot of advertising glitz. Whether it's antioxidants, Vitamin C, live bacteria cultures, or any other ingredient meant to magically cure any of the typical ailments common to humanity, it seems like very other product on the shelves of the local supermarket has some health benefit prominently printed on its packaging. Many ingredients can be even more confusing with the various claims and accusations made about them with each new medical study. Some of these products -- or at least the ingredients they contain -- might indeed have health benefits, but when you can't trust what your food packaging is telling you, why not try the food with the natural package -- nuts.

Nuts aren't going to make anyone superman, and they aren't a miracle cure for any disease. They do have some significant health benefits, however, as is evidenced in both scholarly and popular literature. One review of several studies found different properties in different nuts could actually have profound effects on certain health risks and conditions. The first study reviewed in "Reasons to enjoy eating nuts and legumes" was a study on the effects of eating macadamia nuts in relation to cardiac disease and cholesterol level. Though nuts are known to be high in fats, they tend to be healthier monosaturated fats, and can actually have a healthy effect on the heart and on cholesterol levels, which affects blood pressure, which can in turn lead to other conditions (Nutrition Health Review, par. 1). In fact, this study found that eating macadamia nuts as part of a "prudent diet" can reduce cholesterol levels by as much 9.4%, and reduced low-density lipoproteins or LDL cholesterol (the "bad" kind) by 8.9% (Nutritional Health Review, par. 2).

Several other findings about peanuts and the many edible products made from them -- including peanut butter, peanut oil, and fat-free peanut flour -- are lumped together in the next section of the article. According to the studies reviewed in this article, eating one serving of peanuts or peanut butter a day can reduce the risk of heart disease by a full fifty percent, which is a staggering amount given that heart disease is still the number one cause of death in the United States (Nutritional Health Review, par. 3). Furthermore, this same serving of peanut butter reduces the risk of diabetes by twenty-five percent, and though diabetes is not as common a cause of death (or as common a condition) as heart disease, this is a significant health benefit of peanuts not to be overlooked (Nutritional Health Review, par. 3). But the findings mentioned in this article hardly scratch the surface of how nuts are capable of improving health.

A more extensive study into the long-term effects of nuts on the human diet back up the findings regarding heart disease, but found that many (if not most) nuts have this affect, not just macadamia nuts and peanuts (Johnson). This study showed an even more profound effect than that mentioned in the above, however. Whereas the first study mentioned above found that macadamia nuts were able to reduce the risk of heart disease -- that is, a preventative effect -- the study reviewed by Johnson reveals that nits are actually able to reduce and even reverse some of the causes and effects of heart disease, completely eliminating its appearance in forty-eight percent of a trial group in one year (Johnson). This result even compared favorably to other dietary methods of controlling and curtailing heart disease and its causes -- eating nuts reduced heart disease, obesity, and other risk factors (Johnson).