Nuts can have a powerful impact on your health.
Nuts are the most common snack among centenarians in the Blue Zones — the places around the world where people live the longest — where they eat two handfuls of nuts per day.
Recently a couple of studies have pointed to two types of nuts with especially potent health benefits.
The first study, published last week in the journal Nutrients, analyzed data from 67,014 women and 26,326 men over a period of 20 years. The study found that eating walnuts was associated with a longer life expectancy. Specifically, a greater life expectancy at age 60 (1.30 years in women and 1.26 years in men) was observed among people who ate more than 5 servings a week of walnuts compared to those who did not eat any walnuts. A serving size was defined as 28 grams (1 ounce).
Eating walnuts was shown to reduce all-cause mortality, especially the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. Consuming walnuts more than 5 times per week cut the risk of cardiovascular disease mortality by 25%, relative to non-consumers. This could be explained because walnuts contain a high amount of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), compared to other nuts. ALA is a plant-based omega-3 fatty acid, which has been shown to improve blood lipids and endothelial function. Walnuts have also been…
