People with diabetes who regularly eat nuts may be less likely to develop heart disease than their counterparts who rarely if ever, consume nuts, a US study suggests. The data found in a study by Gang Liu, a nutrition researcher at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health in Boston.
Diabetics who ate at least five 28-gram (one-ounce) servings of nuts a week were 17 percent less likely to develop heart disease than people with diabetes who had no more than one serving of nuts weekly, the study found.
Even just one serving of nuts might still be good for the heart, however. For people with diabetes, adding just one extra serving of nuts a week was associated with a three percent lower risk of developing cardiac conditions and six percent lower risk of dying from heart problems.
According to the study, too many nuts may not necessarily be a good thing. However, a handful of nuts are beneficial for the heart, but it remains unclear what’s the ideal serving size.
Tree nuts such as walnuts, almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, pistachios, pecans, macadamias, hazelnuts, and pine nuts were more strongly linked to a lower risk of heart disease than peanuts, which are actually legumes that grow underground.
