Highlights
- Some nuts were found to have beneficial effects on brain frequencies
- Daily consumption of nuts and seeds has been linked to promoting health
- Nuts and seeds are loaded with essential fatty acids and antioxidants
Researchers at Loma Linda University in the US have found some nuts to have beneficial effects on brain frequencies. Daily consumption of nuts and seeds has long been linked to promoting health, boosting memory, slowing ageing, reducing inflammation and promoting cognitive health. Nuts and seeds are loaded with essential fatty acids and antioxidants that help boost immunity, rev up metabolism and help in maintaining heart, skin and brain health.
Although, all nuts are believed to have positive effects on health, some nuts - like pistachios and peanuts, were found to be specifically beneficial for cognitive health. Pistachios were found to be capable of producing the greatest gamma wave response critical for enhancing cognitive processing, information retention, learning, perception and rapid eye movement during sleep, they said.
Peanuts, on the other hand produced the highest delta response associated with healthy immunity, natural healing, and deep sleep. Walnuts were found to have the highest antioxidant concentrations of all.
"This study provides significant beneficial findings by demonstrating that nuts are as good for your brain as they are for the rest of your body," said Berk, principal investigator of the study published in the FASEB Journal. For the study, the team had participants consume six varieties of nuts including almonds, pistachios, walnuts, pecans, cashews and peanuts. Electroencephalograms (EEG) were taken to measure the strength of brainwave signals. EEG wave band activity was then recorded from nine regions of the scalp associated with cerebral cortical function.
Inputs from PTI