Evidence suggest that nuts are a healthy food. Increasingly nuts are being seen as providing significant health benefits that may include protection from cardiovascular disease and cancer. The exact reason for the health benefits of nuts are not fully known, but may relate to the antioxidant nutrients, fibre or essential fats they contain. A recent study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition1 investigated the health effects of nuts by examining previous epidemiological studies investigating health outcomes from nut consumpton. The authors found a significant inverse association between nut consumption and all cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, and cancer mortality. The reduction in cardiovascular mortality was primarily due to a reduction in coronary artery disease rather than a reduction in stroke, which supports other studies that show that nuts may protect from development of metabolic syndrome, a primary driver of cardiovascular disease.
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