Beneficial effects of nuts

Nuts are a vegetarian food, ranging from legumes like pea nuts to nuts found on trees like walnuts or coconuts. They are very delicious and satisfying to eat and also provide flavour to many recipes, including salads and desserts. For many years, nuts were feared for increasing weight by providing extra calories. Therefore, “diet conscious”, people were avoiding them. But since the past decade or more, many studies have proven the beneficial effects of nuts on overall health of an individual. It has been observed that people who live around the Mediterranean Sea have a low prevalence of coronary artery disease as compared to other parts of the world. When the diet of this area the, “Mediterranean diet”, was studied it was found that people there, regularly consumed nuts. Studies have shown that those who consumed nuts regularly had a 60% less incidence of having heart attacks, as compared to those who did not take nuts in their diet or took them sparingly. They are high in polyunsaturated fats and have a low content of harmful saturated fat. This is beneficial to prevent coronary artery disease. Nuts have also known to reduce risk of stroke and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Metabolic syndrome (syndrome consisting of obesity, high blood pressure, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus), is known to be reversed by consuming nuts regularly. Blockage of blood vessels by clots is known to reduce by eating nuts regularly. Nuts also have antioxidant properties which help to build the body’s strength to fight against cancer and infections. They are also a rich source of proteins in the diet which helps in repairing tissues against wear and tear and providing energy against infection. This is particularly more useful for vegetarians who do not consume meat protein. They are also high in fiber. Thus regular consumption of nuts aids in digestion and helps prevent constipation and digestive troubles. Apart from these benefits, nuts also provide vitamin E, folic acid, magnesium, copper, and the amino acid arginine. Each of these nutrients is useful for various functions of the body and is also healthy for the heart. Pistachios are said to improve erectile function in men. That nuts lead to obesity is a wrong observation as current studies show. In fact those eating nuts regularly were found to be thinner as compared to those who did not eat nuts. Nuts are filling in nature. So when one eats nuts, the appetite for other foods is reduced, thus overall consumption of other foods would be reduced, thus decreasing the total calories consumed. Eating a handful of nuts provides 160-200 calories. This is rich in healthy monounsaturated fats hence beneficial for the heart and body. Which nut is more useful has not been specified, but all are beneficial in different ways. One may pick his choice from the wide variety of nuts available. Peanuts, walnuts, hazelnuts, pistachios, macademia nuts, all are beneficial. Coconut is an exception from other nuts as it is said to have high cholesterol content. But not all the cholesterol is harmful. It is a rich source of protein and is useful for those desiring to put on weight and build up muscles as in body builders. It also contains lauric acid which is useful in fending off infections due to its antibacterial and anti-infective properties. Coconut is also useful in treating pancreatic disorders; hence indirectly it helps in better control of diabetes. It contains iodine, hence helps combat goiter which occurs due to disorder of thyroid gland. It is said that eating 30-60 gram of nuts everyday is useful for the body and also the heart. They can be used as tea time snacks instead of the harmful junk food snacks. There is no study to say that eating them in greater quantity confers any additional benefit. Of course eating anything in excess is bad and so would be for nuts. One can include nuts in his menu and use them in wide variety of ways as possible for keeping good health. rachna212002@yahoo.co.uk