Abdominal Obesity, High Blood Sugar, High Blood Pressure? Eat Nuts.

Nuts are an amazing, convenient source of essential fatty acids and proteins. They also hold an equally enjoyable handful of benefits for people with abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, and high blood sugar.

The Research

Findings presented by medical researchers with the University of Toronto Department of Nutritional Sciences, and St. Michael’s Hospital, suggest that if eaten daily, a small amount of tree nuts could ward-off certain serious health conditions, including type 2 diabetes ^[1]. By investigating the effects of a relatively nut-rich diet in patients who have type 2 diabetes, Dr. David Jenkins, lead author of the Canadian study, and his colleagues, were able to document measurable improvements in both glycemic and serum lipid control. Both standard indicators used to gauge day-to-day blood serum level status in diabetic patients.

Dr. Jenkins and his colleagues initially divided the diabetic patient's recruiter for the investigation into three test groups. The first group was fed a mixture of tree nuts, including walnuts, almonds, pecans, pistachios, cashews, macadamia, and hazelnuts. The second group was given a combination of nuts and normal, baked breakfast muffins. The third group of participants, which acted as the study’s comparison control sample, received only muffins.

Why is eating nuts beneficial?

Participants in both the “nuts only” and “nuts and muffins” test groups showed significantly healthier blood serum levels than their “muffin only” counterparts. Results observed in the “nuts only” group, however, showed the most improvement. This strongly suggests that reducing carbohydrate intake continues to play an equally important role in the regulation of blood serum balance in individuals living with diabetes, regardless of nut consumption.

The Canadian research team behind the investigation also points out that while nuts are generally very high in fats by overall volume, they contain virtually no LDL-type “bad cholesterol,” and have yet to be definitely connected with weight gain in any previously known scientific study.

Even if it happens that these impressive initial findings stem purely from a reduction in carb intake due to food choice substitution, and ultimately have nothing to do with nut consumption, it still doesn’t mean that aren’t plenty of reasons to enjoy snacking on them.