Many people look for quick fixes when it comes to their
diet. Instead of some miracle diet or
quick fix, if people just started some healthier eating habits their health
would improve. Most people think eating
healthy is giving up things. Can’t have
cake, can’t have cookies. But eating
healthy is more about eating healthier foods.
This week the latest research shows that just adding a handful of nuts
to your diet every day lowers your death risk by reducing cancer and heart disease.
Dr. Oz has long recommended a handful of nuts a day for health. Since 2003, the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) recommended a handful of nuts to lower your heart disease risk. In my nutrition class, I always give a list
of ways to eat healthier and one of them is eating a handful of nuts a
day.
So what did Harvard researchers find out and what did they
study? (Association
of Nut Consumption with Total and Cause-Specific Mortality) Over a 30 year period Harvard researchers tracked
110,000 men and women. They found that
those who ate a handful of nuts every day lowered their risk of death by
20%. Eat nuts less often and you still
benefit but not as much as those who ate nuts every day. Previous researchers have shown nuts can
lower heart disease risk. This study
found the risk of dying from heart disease dropped by 29% and the risk of dying
from cancer dropped by 11 percent in those who ate nuts seven or more times a
week.
What nuts to eat? The study noted peanuts, pistachios, almonds,
walnuts and other tree nuts all provided health benefits.
But aren’t nuts
fattening? Surprisingly, those who
ate the handful of nuts a day were slimmer.
But remember, they were eating a handful of nuts a day, not the entire
container of nuts.
So one healthy habit to start is eating a handful of nuts a day. Pack a handful in a baggie and bring them to work
as a snack. Pack them in your
lunch. So easy to make this a habit and
improve your health in the process.
