Nuts May Be The Ultimate Health Food

Writing in the New York Times, Jane Brody tells us something remarkable about nuts: the more you eat, the less likely you are to die at any given age, especially of cancer or heart disease. How does she know that? Brody cites a series of large studies, including the Nurses’ Health Study of 76,464 women and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study of 42,498 men, sufficient evidence for most readers, but perhaps not for Brody herself, who points out that these studies involved well-off and well-educated people, who are likely to live longer no matter what they eat. But wait, there’s more: a new study of more than 200,000 men and women in the Southern United States and Shanghai, found that the more nuts people consumed, the lower their death rates from all causes and especially from heart disease and stroke. And more: contrary to what many believe, nuts do not make you fat. Brody points out that people in studies that included nuts in a weight-loss regimen lost more weight and ended up with a smaller waist and less body fat than participants who did not eat nuts.