Walnuts!
Okay, so we’re not a big wanut-eating family, and they aren’t the most popular nuts in the US, but walnuts are some of the healthiest nuts grown in the world. Walnut butter is yummy, but my kids do sometimes comlain that it’s “bitter” and “tastes funny”, so we don’t often have walnut butter. But I have found an article on the health benefits of walnuts at www.sixwise.com. It’s just a snippet, but here it is:
Many people were scared away from nuts during the low-fat craze of the last few decades, but now nuts are making a comeback. Nuts are excellent sources of protein, minerals, “good” monounsaturated fats and other nutrients, and they’re good for the heart.
A study conducted by Loma Linda University in California that involved 31,000 Seventh Day Adventists found that eating nuts lowered the risk of heart disease and helped participants to keep their weight down. Other large-scale studies, including the Physician’s Health Study, the Iowa Women’s Heath Study and the Harvard Nurses Health Study, also found that eating nuts lowered heart disease risk. Other studies have shown that nuts help lower bad “LDL” cholesterol.
In fact, in July 2003, the FDA approved the following health claim for nut package labels:
“Scientific evidence suggests, but does not prove, that eating 1.5 ounces per day of some nuts, as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease.”
It only takes a small handful of nuts to satisfy hunger (and help you stay full longer), and there are many varieties to choose from.
When it comes to nuts, the walnut is the king. It’s a great source of the healthy omega-3 essential fatty acids, which have been found to protect the heart, promote better cognitive function, and provide anti-inflammatory benefits for asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, eczema and psoriasis.
Walnuts also contain the antioxidant compound ellagic acid, which is known to fight cancer and support the immune system. But that’s not all–in a study in the August 2003 issue of Phytochemistry, researchers identified 16 polyphenols in walnuts, including three new tannins, with antioxidant activity so powerful they described it as “remarkable.”
Walnuts are incredibly healthy for the heart. A study in the April 2004 issue of Circulation found that when walnuts were substituted for about one-third of the calories supplied by olives and other monounsaturated fats in the Mediterranean diet:
- Total cholesterol and LDL (bad) cholesterol were reduced
- The elasticity of the arteries increased by 64 percent
- Levels of vascular cell adhesion molecules, which play a major role in the development of atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), were reduced.
There is a lot of information regarding the health benefits of walnuts, but mostly on nuts in general, so please forgive me if I have been negligent in finding all the links on just walnuts. But, as I promised, I bring you the links:
The World’s Healthiest Foods website, from which I quote a lot;
The HealthCastle website, a guide to better health;
The Walnuts official website featuring anything you might want to know about a walnut;
Lower Cholesterol Today has information about walnuts;
What’s Cooking America has reasons why you should use Walnut Oil for cooking;
And the Califonia Walnut Commission has their own site with bushels of information.
