Have you taken your omega-7s today?
If you follow nutrition information even half-heartedly, there’s a
good chance you’ve heard of omega-3 fatty acids, the fats derived
primarily from fish that are thought to be good for our hearts and
brains, and that can reduce inflammation throughout the body. Less
well-known, but still relevant are the omega-9 fatty acids, which can be
derived from the likes of olive oil. Unlike omega-3s and omega-6s,
however, omega-9 fatty acids can be manufactured in our body, and are
therefore not actually essential to a healthy diet. So what are
omega-7s, and why do they matter? We are only beginning to understand
them, but what we know so far is both intriguing and promising.
Nuts have long been called heart-healthy, and the study is the largest ever done on whether eating them affects mortality.
Researchers tracked 119,000 men and women and found that those who
ate nuts roughly every day were 20% less likely to die during the study
period than those who never ate nuts. Eating nuts less often lowered the
death risk too, in direct proportion to consumption.
The risk of dying of heart disease dropped 29% and the risk of dying
of cancer fell 11% among those who had nuts seven or more times a week
compared with people who never ate them.
The benefits were seen from peanuts as well as from pistachios,
almonds, walnuts and other tree nuts. The researchers did not look at
how the nuts were prepared — oiled or salted, raw or roasted.
A bonus: Nut eaters stayed slimmer.
“There’s a general perception that if you eat more nuts you’re going
to get fat. Our results show the opposite,” said Dr. Ying Bao of
Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
She led the study, published in Thursday’s
New England Journal of Medicine.
The U.S. National Institutes of Health and the International Tree Nut
Council Nutrition Research & Education Foundation sponsored the
study, but the nut group had no role in designing it or reporting the
results.
Researchers don’t know why nuts may boost health. It could be that
their unsaturated fatty acids, minerals and other nutrients lower
cholesterol and inflammation and reduce other problems, as earlier
studies seemed to show.
‘Sometimes when you eat nuts you eat less of something else like potato chips’
Observational studies like this one can’t prove cause and effect,
only suggest a connection. Research on diets is especially tough,
because it can be difficult to single out the effects of any one food.
People who eat more nuts
may eat them on salads,
for example, and some of the benefit may come from the leafy greens,
said Dr. Robert Eckel, a University of Colorado cardiologist and former
president of the American Heart Association.
Dr. Ralph Sacco, a University of Miami neurologist who also is a former heart association president, agreed.
“Sometimes when you eat nuts you eat less of something else like
potato chips,” so the benefit may come from avoiding an unhealthy food,
Sacco said.
The Harvard group has long been known for solid science on diets. Its
findings build on a major study earlier this year — a rigorous
experiment that found a Mediterranean-style diet supplemented with nuts
cuts the chance of heart-related problems, especially strokes, in older
people at high risk of them.
Many previous studies tie nut consumption to lower risks of heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer and other maladies.
In 2003, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said a fistful of nuts
a day as part of a low-fat diet may reduce the risk of heart disease.
The heart association recommends four servings of unsalted, unoiled nuts
a week and warns against eating too many, since they are dense in
calories.
The new research combines two studies that started in the 1980s on
76,464 female nurses and 42,498 male health professionals. They filled
out surveys on food and lifestyle habits every two to four years,
including how often they ate a serving (1 ounce) of nuts.
Study participants who often ate nuts were healthier — they weighed
less, exercised more and were less likely to smoke, among other things.
After taking these and other things into account, researchers still saw a
strong benefit from nuts.
We did so many analyses, very sophisticated ones, to eliminate other possible explanations
Compared with people who never ate nuts, those who had them less than
once a week reduced their risk of death 7%; once a week, 11%; two to
four times a week, 13%; and seven or more times a week, 20%.
“I’m very confident” the observations reflect a true benefit, Bao
said. “We did so many analyses, very sophisticated ones,” to eliminate
other possible explanations.
For example, they did separate analyses on smokers and non-smokers,
heavy and light exercisers, and people with and without diabetes, and
saw a consistent benefit from nuts.
‘We’re seeing benefits of nut consumption on cardiovascular disease as well as body weight and diabetes’
At a heart association conference in Dallas this week, Penny
Kris-Etheron, a Pennsylvania State University nutrition scientist,
reviewed previous studies on this topic.
“We’re seeing benefits of nut consumption on cardiovascular disease
as well as body weight and diabetes,” said Kris-Etherton, who has
consulted for nut makers and also served on many scientific panels on
dietary guidelines.
“We don’t know exactly what it is” about nuts that boosts health or
which ones are best, she said. “I tell people to eat mixed nuts.”
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Fonte e imagem: http://life.nationalpost.com/2013/11/21/eating-nuts-tied-to-lower-risk-of-dying-from-cancer-heart-disease-and-a-slimmer-waist-harvard-study-finds/
