Walnuts could help improve quality of your diet

Research shows that eating walnuts each day can lower the risk of developing type 2 diabetes for people who are high risk of the condition.
A team of researchers from Yale University Prevention Research Center, led by Dr David Katz, studied 112 adults, aged between 25 and 75 years. They were all considered to be high risk for diabetes.
They were divided into two groups, with one receiving advice on how to follow a lower calorie diet, whilst the other group did not receive this advice. In both groups, people were randomly selected to consume 56g of walnuts each day, for six months.
All of the participants had their weight, height, BMI, waist circumference, fasting blood glucose, HbA1c, blood pressure and cholesterol levels measured throughout the study.
Eating walnuts had no, or very little, effect on blood glucose levels, fasting blood glucose, HbA1c, or HDL (good) cholesterol.
However, it did reduce the total and LDL (bad) cholesterol levels considerably, for those who ate walnuts every day, as well as showing an improved epithelial functioning.
Body fat unsurprisingly went up (as walnuts are high in calories), but it was found that even those who did not receive any diet advice did not gain weight.
“Weight did not go up in any group,” Dr Katz said. “So that confirmed that people were adding something good, and bumping out something less good for their health.”
“Our data suggests that inclusion of walnuts in the diet, with or without dietary counselling to adjust caloric intake, improved diet quality and may also improve [endothelial function], and reduce total and LDL cholesterol in this sample of adults at risk for diabetes,” the researchers concluded.
The study was published in the BMJ Open Diabetes Research and Care journal.

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