Nuts, despite containing a lot of fat, are a fantastic heart-healthy snack.
I’ve started handing out my special Dr. P’s Heart Nuts to patients along with the following:
Congratulations!
You have received a packet of cardiovascular disease-busting Dr. P’s Heart Nuts!
One packet 15 grams of almonds, 15 grams of hazelnuts and 30 grams of walnuts.There is very good scientific evidence that consuming 1/2 packet of these per day will reduce your risk of dying from heart attacks, strokes, and cancer.
The exact components are based on the landmark randomized trial of the Mediterranean diet, enhanced by either extra-virgin olive oil or nuts (PREDIMED, in which participants in the two Mediterranean-diet groups received either extra-virgin olive oil (approximately 1 liter per week) or 30g of mixed nuts per day
In other observational studies it has been found that for every 28 grams/ day increase in nut intake, risk was reduced by:
29% for coronary heart disease 7% for stroke
21% for cardiovascular disease 15% for cancer22% for all-cause mortality
Surprisingly, death from diseases, other than heart disease or cancer, were also significantly reduced:
52% for respiratory disease
35% for neurodenerative disease
75% for infectious disease
74% for kidney diseaseSo when you are considering snacking, snack on nuts not processed food! Dr. Pearson
Posts About Nuts
Posts relevant to nuts and prevention of heart disease on my blog are
Nuts, Drupes, Legumes and Mortality
Kind Bars versus Nuts: Choose Just Plain Nuts
Nutty Due Diligence
I spent a lot of time sourcing the nuts for my Dr. P’s Heart Nuts and discovered some disturbing things about almonds.
First, almost all almonds sold in the US have been gassed with proplyene oxide.
Second, roasting almonds can lead to an increase in toxic chemicals.
After finding out the first two facts about almonds I ended up getting raw, organic almonds from Spain. Unfortunately, about 1 in 10 of these were extremely bitter. It turns out these bitter almonds have significant amounts of cyanide. So I wrote “Beware The Bitter Almond.”
I switched my raw, organic almond source to Nuts.com and with their almonds I very rarely encounter the bitter almond.
