Two separate studies presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2018 showed the benefits of eating nuts daily. Turns out, Brazil nuts and other varieties of nuts daily may prevent weight gain and provide other cardiovascular benefits. One study analysed the influence of eating nuts and peanuts on long-term body weight in U.S. men and women. The other study examined whether eating Brazil nuts could increase a sense of fullness and improve glucose and insulin responses. In the analysis of nuts' impact on weight, researchers followed health professionals who were free of chronic at the start of the study. They found that eating one one-ounce serving of any type of nuts or peanuts, in place of foods generally considered low in nutritional value, was associated with a lower-risk of long-term weight gain and obesity.
Nut consumption was assessed through a food-frequency questionnaire submitted to participants e very four years in three different established study groups of over 25,000 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up study, 53,000 women in the Nurse's Health Study and 47,000 women in the Nurse's Health Study II in follow-up research.
The findings revealed that eating a daily serving of any type of nut or peanuts was linked to less risk of weight gain or becoming obese over the four-year intervals. It also showed that substituting one serving a day of any type of nuts in place of one serving of red meat, processed meat, French fries, desserts or potato chips was associated with less weight gain over the four-year intervals.
A serving of nuts is defined as one ounce of whole nuts or two tablespoons of nut butter. According to the researchers, people often see nuts as food items high in fat and calories, so they hesitate to consider them as healthy snacks, but they are in fact associated with less weight gain and wellness.
Once people reach adulthood, they start to gradually gain about one pound a year of weight, which seems small. But if you consider gaining one pound over 20 years, it accumulates to a lot of weight gain. Adding one ounce of nuts to your diet in place of less healthy foods, such as red processed meat, French fries or sugar snacks- may help prevent that slow, gradual weight gain after you enter adulthood and reduce the risk of obesity-related cardiovascular diseases.
The study found that both Brazil nuts and pretzels significantly increased a sense of fullness and reduced feelings of hunger, with the greatest sense of fullness experienced by the group eating Brazil nuts compared to those eating pretzels. It also found that pretzel consumption caused a significant increase in blood glucose and insulin at 40-minutes after they were eaten, compared to the start of the trial, whereas eating Brazil nuts did not significantly increase blood sugar levels or insulin.
Brazil nuts are known as one of the highest known food sources of selenium, a mineral which the researchers note in previous studies may be associated with improvements in insulin and glucose responses.