The Diet Fixer: 1.5 Ounces Of Almonds

It’s not just that almonds are good for you, although they certainly are. It’s that they replace the junk food that you might eat if you hadn’t eaten almonds. Here’s how we know.  A University of Florida news release reports that researchers at the school instructed 28 pairs of parents and children to eat almonds–parents ate 1.5 ounces a day and kids ate half an ounce of whole almonds or an equivalent amount of almond butter each day– for three weeks. The researchers determined that, at the beginning of the 14-week research period, the research subjects’ average Healthy Eating Index scores were 53.7 ± 1.8 for the parents and 53.7 ± 2.6 for the children. (The Healthy Eating Index is a measure of diet quality that assesses conformance to the USDA’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans. A score below 51 is reflective of a poor diet, a score between 51 and 80 reflects a need for improvement and a score greater than 80 indicates a good diet.) After the almond eating period, the average Healthy Eating Index score for parents and children increased, with parents’ average increasing to 61.4 ± 1.4 and children’s average increasing to 61.4 ± 2.2. They increased their Healthy Eating Index component scores for total protein foods and decreased the intake of empty calories. What’s up with that? The researchers are convinced that the parents and children were replacing salty and processed snacks with almonds.