Know your nuts! What to eat for your health

Research shows that 50g of walnuts for breakfast can boost memory. These are the other health benefits of nuts and seeds.

Need a brain boost? New research from the University of Reading suggests one way to boost memory performance and speed up reaction times is to add a handful of walnuts to your breakfast bowl.

Claire Williams, the professor of neuroscience who led the study, found that eating 50g of walnuts mixed into muesli and yoghurt enhanced the cognitive power of healthy young adults better than a calorie-matched breakfast without the nuts.

Reporting her findings in Food and Function journal, Williams described how brain scans revealed that walnuts seemed to help the brain to work more efficiently during challenging mental tasks. Blood samples conducted as part of the study also uncovered positive changes in levels of glucose and fatty acid levels, factors that also improve brain function.

Have walnuts for a brain boost.

“A handful of walnuts with breakfast could give young adults a mental edge when they need to perform at the top of their game,” Williams says. “It’s particularly exciting that such a simple dietary addition could make a measurable difference to cognitive performance.”

It’s not the first time that nuts and seeds have been linked to improved health. Norwegian scientists reporting in Advances in Nutrition in 2022 confirmed that eating a handful of nuts and seeds a day had a range of positive health outcomes, including a lower risk of heart disease, cancer and other diseases. Packed with vitamin E and valuable minerals, not to mention good fats, protein and dietary fibre, they are good for the brain, digestive system and cardiovascular health. “Regular nut and seed consumption is also linked to better weight management, and reduced risk of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes,” says the registered nutritionist Eli Brecher.

Despite their health benefits, many people avoid eating nuts and seeds due to misconceptions about their fat and calorie content. Rhiannon Lambert, a registered nutritionist and author of The Science of Plant-Based Nutrition, says provided that you avoid the heavily coated or sweetened varieties, nuts and seeds can even help you to lose weight and blast away body fat.

“Incorporating nuts and seeds daily is a simple yet impactful way to support overall health and longevity,” Lambert says. “With many nuts and seeds having specific proven benefits for health, it is best to get as wide a variety of them in your diet as you can.”

Here are the ones to choose:

PEANUTS HELP TO WARD OFF DEMENTIA

Peanuts (although they by definition legumes rather than nuts) hold a raft of health benefits. Researchers at Maastricht University found that peanut eaters were at a lower risk of dying early from cardiovascular disease, although the same was not true for people who ate peanut butter, suggesting that whole nuts had a greater protective effect.

Peanuts are better for you than peanut butter, research suggests.

One recent study involving 50,000 over-60s in the UK Biobank revealed that eating a 30g handful of peanuts every day resulted in a 16 per cent lower risk of them developing dementia in the following years. Bruno Bizzozero-Peroni, a researcher in healthy ageing at the University of Castilla-La Mancha in Spain, reported in Nutritional Neuroscience journal that the benefits rose to 17 per cent if the peanuts were unsalted.

EAT PISTACHIOS TO BOOST EYE HEALTH

A 2023 study from Cornell University in the journal Nutrients reported that pistachios have an impressive antioxidant profile, with even more of the disease-fighting nutrients than the superfoods blueberries, pomegranates, cherries and beetroot. “We believe this high antioxidant activity might be due to unique compounds in pistachios including vitamin E, carotenoids, phenolics and flavonoids,” said Rui Hai Liu, professor of food sciences at Cornell and lead author of the paper. Among the antioxidants they contain are lutein and zeaxanthin, which are hugely beneficial for eye health.

Want to see better? Have some of these.

Eating a handful of unsalted, shelled, dry-roasted pistachio nuts each day for 12 weeks significantly improved the eye health of a group of midlifers, according to a study in January from the Friedman School of nutrition science and policy at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts. “Unlike many other nuts, pistachios contain all nine essential amino acids, making them a rare complete protein in the plant-based world,” Lambert says. “They are also a great source of B vitamins like B6 and thiamine, which contribute to a healthy immune system.”

MACADAMIA NUTS CAN HELP WITH WEIGHT CONTROL

About 75 per cent of the weight of a macadamia nut is fat; it is the oil they contain that might hold the secret to their purported weight-loss effects. This is a rich source of palmitoleic acid, a monounsaturated fatty acid also called omega-7, which has been shown in animal studies to help reduce body fat. Brazilian researchers who gave mice macadamia nut oil daily reported in Mediators of Inflammation journal that the size of the animal’s fat cells had shrunk after 12 weeks.

As with many nuts, macadamias also provide satiating fibre and protein, which reduce the need to snack on less healthy foods. And a study at Mukogawa Women’s University in Japan found that young women who ate macadamia nuts lost more weight after three weeks than those who added coconut or butter to their daily diets.

SUNFLOWER SEEDS CAN REDUCE BODY FAT

High in healthy fats, vitamin E and other antioxidants, sunflower seeds are also packed with fibre and protein, both of which fill you up, as well as chlorogenic acids, which may help with weight loss. Last year a study of overweight adults by doctors at the Catholic University of Korea found that consuming a daily supplement of sunflower seed extract for 12 weeks led to significantly greater losses in body fat and weight and hip circumference.

PECANS HELP TO FIGHT THE EFFECTS OF ‘BAD FATS’

Adding two handfuls of pecans a day to your diet has been shown to blunt some of the adverse effects of a diet high in the saturated animal fats linked to a raised risk of high cholesterol and heart disease. Professor Jamie Cooper, an obesity researcher at the University of Georgia, found that pecans had a positive effect on blood cholesterol and blood lipid levels of midlifers after a month. “We speculate that the fatty acid composition of pecans and their antioxidant capacity may have contributed to the blunting effects on saturated fat and to other health outcomes,” Cooper said.

Two handfuls of pecans a day has benefits.

And despite the nuts adding 470 calories to their daily energy intake, those consuming the pecans did not gain weight or body fat during the trial.

ALMONDS ARE GOOD FOR GUT HEALTH AND SKIN PROTECTION

Almonds are a rich source of vitamin E, which is important for healthy skin and eyes and to protect cells from oxidative damage. “Regular almond consumption has been shown in a dermatology study at the University of California to help support the skin’s resistance to sunburn, potentially enhancing the skin’s natural defence against UVB rays,” Lambert says.

Almonds are also a great gut booster. In a trial at King’s College London (KCL) involving 87 adults, all of whom ate too little fibre and snacked on processed foods before the study, researchers asked some of the participants to swap regular snacks for 56g of whole unsalted almonds - 30g is equivalent to a single handful - and another to eat 56g of ground almonds, while a control group ate a calorie-matched muffin each day for four weeks. The results, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, showed that all of the almond eaters displayed increased production of butyrate, a short-chain fatty acid that is known to improve gut health.

Professor Kevin Whelan, the head of nutritional sciences at KCL, also showed that the whole-almonds group had 1.5 more bowel movements a week than the other participants, suggesting the nuts could benefit people with constipation. “We think these findings suggest almond consumption may benefit bacterial metabolism in a way that has the potential to influence human health,” Whelan said. Brecher recommends eating almonds with the skin on for added fibre.

EAT MORE BRAZIL NUTS TO REDUCE INFLAMMATION AND BOOST MALE FERTILITY

Brazil nuts are one of the best sources of selenium, a mineral that is important for male fertility as it helps to boost sperm quality, according to infertility researchers reporting in the International Journal of General Medicine. Selenium is also important for brain health, as is ellagic acid, an antioxidant that is also found in Brazil nuts. A study published in Neurochemical Research also showed that older adults who ate one Brazil nut a day had stronger thinking abilities after six months.

Brazil nuts boost sperm quality.

Recently, scientists reported in the Journal of Nutrition that female dieters who ate Brazil nuts daily had reductions in inflammatory markers linked to many diseases, including heart disease and cancer. “Just two Brazil nuts provide your daily recommended intake of selenium, a mineral also essential for thyroid function and immune support,” Brecher says. “However, too much selenium can be harmful, so stick to no more than this amount.”

PUMPKIN SEEDS HELP TO BOOST MOOD

Snack on pumpkin seeds and you could find your mood improves. The seeds contain tryptophan, an amino acid used in the production of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which is important for mood control, as well as bioactive plant compounds that act as antidepressants. Pharmacologists from the University of Karachi in Pakistan showed that pumpkin seeds might help to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression for some people.

HAZELNUTS CAN PROTECT AGAINST CELL DAMAGE

“Hazelnuts are particularly rich in folate, a B vitamin important for DNA synthesis and brain health,” Brecher says. “Their high content of monounsaturated fats also contributes to reducing inflammation in the body.” A rich source of antioxidants, they also protect against cell damage. A 2024 study in Natural Product Research journal showed that extract of hazelnut has the power to kill some cancer cells.

HAVE CHIA SEEDS TO LOWER YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE

Chia seeds, which are packed with protein and fibre, heart-friendly polyunsaturated fats and antioxidants, could help with blood pressure management if consumed regularly, according to a 2023 report from Oregon State University.

Chia seeds help with blood pressure.

CASHEWS CAN HELP TO CONTROL BLOOD SUGAR

Adding a handful of cashew nuts to your daily diet may improve blood sugar control by reducing post-meal spikes. “Cashews, like other nuts, contain a good mix of protein, fat and some fibre, which helps to slow down the absorption of carbohydrates,” Brecher says. “Over time that can help to stabilise blood sugar levels.” In the International Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism, researchers from Iran found that eating a handful of cashews daily for two months helped to control blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes.

See the original story on The Times here.