Nutritionally speaking walnuts appear to be heroes of the nut family, according to research presented at the National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society.
Here is some information about nuts:
• Nuts are considered to be a healthful food because they contain high quality protein as well as dietary fiber, vitamins, and minerals
• People tend to shy away from nuts because of their high fat content but eating nuts is actually associated with a lower risk of weight gain and obesity
• The fats found in nuts are generally the healthy variety of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats
A researcher out of the University of Scranton measured the levels of antioxidants in nine different kinds of nuts: walnuts, almonds, peanuts, pistachios, hazelnuts, Brazil nuts, cashews, macadamias, and pecans.
Walnuts came out ahead of the other nuts with respect to levels of antioxidants. In fact, a handful of walnuts contains nearly twice as much antioxidants as any other commonly consumed nut. Also, the antioxidants found in walnuts are particularly potent – two to fifteen times as potent as vitamin E. Another benefit of walnuts is that they are more likely than most other nuts to be eaten raw, and cooking or roasting nuts can diminish or even destroy their antioxidant power. According to the investigator, eating only seven walnuts a day is enough to reap all the potential health benefits associated with nuts in previous research. Such benefits include a decreased risk of heart disease, certain kinds of cancer, gallstones, Type 2 diabetes, and other health problems.
Today’s research suggests it might be a good idea to add walnuts to your regular diet.
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