Walnuts are Mother Nature’s perfect packaged food. Call them the top nut.
Packed with more heart-healthy antioxidants than any other nut, walnuts are better for you than peanuts, almonds, pecans, pistachios and cashews.
Years of research by scientists around the world links regular consumption of small amounts of nuts or peanut butter with a decreased risk of heart disease, certain kinds of cancer, gallstones, type 2 diabetes and other health problems.
“A handful of walnuts contains almost twice as much antioxidants as an equivalent amount of any other commonly consumed nut. But unfortunately, people don’t eat a lot of them,” said Dr. Joe Vinson of University of Scranton in Pennsylvania, head of the research team. “This study suggests that consumers should eat more walnuts as part of a healthy diet.”
In addition to antioxidants, Vinson noted that nuts in general have an unusual combination of nutritional benefits wrapped into a convenient and inexpensive package:
- high-quality protein that can substitute for meat;
- vitamins and minerals;
- dietary fiber;
- healthful polyunsaturated and monosaturated fats instead of artery-clogging saturated fat;
- dairy-free;
- gluten-free
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Until now, the amount and quality of antioxidants in specific nuts had not been analyzed and compared. Vinson’s team did just that, analyzing antioxidants in walnuts, almonds, peanuts, pistachios, hazelnuts, Brazil nuts, cashews, macadamias and pecans.
Specifically, the antioxidants in walnuts were two to 15 times as potent as vitamin E, which is renowned for its powerful antioxidant effects that protect the body against damaging natural chemicals involved in causing disease.
For the biggest antioxidant punch, Vinson advises eating walnuts raw–about seven a day.
The research was presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society.