For decades, mainstream dietary advice has been that nuts are bad for you because they’re full of fat. In fact, a growing body of research shows that the opposite is true.
Recent findings from the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, which together have followed more than 100,000 people for decades, were that the more often nuts were consumed, the less likely participants were to die of cancer, heart disease and respiratory disease. People who ate nuts – pistachios, almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamias, pecans, pine nuts, peanuts and walnuts – recorded a lower death rate from any cause.
The research was published in The New England Journal of Medicine. The text above is an edited version of the early paragraphs of Jane Brody’s story in The New York Times, 9 December 2013.
Campbell Aitken