The Incredible, Edible…. Nut? Part 2

Junk food seems to be a problem that a lot of Americans are struggling with. According to the American Heart Association it has been stated that as of this date “50 million Americans have metabolic syndrome, a combination of health risks, such as high blood pressure and abdominal obesity.” These findings are a reason why it is very important for everyone to be more cautious about their health and their eating habits. Simple things such as replacing less healthy snacks such as chips or certain types of crackers with nuts can be very beneficial and favorable in seeing results and change in your diet. The key to solving this crisis would be to find a way in reversing the way people think and eat when it comes to food. By simply sticking to a healthy lifestyle instead of a so-called diet could be the answer. A lot of individuals freak out or feel discouraged when they hear the word ‘diet’ because it’s very hard to fall off the wagon and lose track of your life these days. The Mediterranean diet makes this easy, it’s more so a guideline than a frightening diet. Another great thing about nuts is that including the benefits it also helps individuals feel full “while also increasing the body’s ability to burn fat.” The anti-inflammatory

substances and antioxidants that are contained nuts help make them to be as beneficial as they are. The healthy fat that nuts contain also help to “lower blood triglycerides” and therefore enables us to “increase good cholesterol.” On the left I included a diagram that I found in the MSNBC article published by the Associated Press. The diagram basically shows results from a study that conducted on 1200 Spaniards located in the Mediterranean region that ranged from the ages of 55 to 80. The study followed the individuals and made sure they followed a specific diet for an entire year. To make the study helpful in understanding what they were trying to find, they made sure that all of the participants did not have prior history to heart disease, though some of the participants did have risk factors which included “Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and abdominal obesity.” The fact that the individuals were risk factors, made this study even more important; that way we could really get down to the basics and find out how beneficial nuts really are to individuals that are risk for these health problems. The three diets that were studied are shown in the diagram with the results showing the difference in their risk factors from when they started the study to when they concluded a year later:
“The low-fat group was given basic advice about reducing all fat in their diets. Another group ate a Mediterranean diet with extra nuts. The third group ate a Mediterranean diet and was told to make sure they ate more than four tablespoons of olive oil a day.”

For all of the individuals that were on the Mediterranean diet they were advised to use olive oil when cooking their food, increase their appetite for fruit, vegetables and fish and other guidelines that the Mediterranean diet follows. All those that were drinkers were advised to drink red wine instead of other alcohol choices. As seen in the diagram, after on year all three groups were able to see some sort of improvement. I hope studies such as these give you the courage to start focusing more on your health and to make others aware of their health as well. Just making a few changes can really go a long way, take a look below for more interesting facts about nuts:




Just a Reminder on some Interesting Facts about Nuts:

• Including nuts into your diet in moderation can actually slim you down
• Peanuts are in the same family as beans and peas therefore they are technically legumes
• Nuts can also be categorized under the same food group as ‘protein’ due to the classification of being a legume
• The fats found in nuts are not technically bad for you; Omega-3 fatty acids found in nuts provide “cardiovascular protection and lower ‘bad’ cholesterol.”
• Nuts are good sources of B vitamins






Reference:
[1] The Associated Press. “A nutty diet may cut heart disease risk.” Msnbc, 8 . 2008. .

[2] Collins, Rebecca. Ezine Articles, 2008

The Incredible, Edible…Nut? Part 1

Just a handful of nuts a day can go a long way these days. Challenge yourself this year and trade away those unhealthy snacks for nuts, or if you happen to be allergic to nuts then choose a healthier route such as fruits or yogurt. In previous blogs I have boasted about the straight healthiness of nuts but a recent article published on MSNBC set the record straight. As long as you follow the Mediterranean diet guidelines which are “rich in fruit, vegetables and fish” and eat a handful of nuts for an entire year, there is proof that you may be able to “help undo a collection of risk factors for heart disease.” Interestingly enough, researchers discovered through their studies that an addition of nuts into an individual’s diet worked better than “boosting the olive oil in a typical Mediterranean diet.”

I’m a huge fan of olive oil; when I’m cooking eggs, sautéing vegetables on the saucepan, or replacing butter or margarine, and then I’m using olive oil. I pretty much use olive oil on a regular basis. Regardless of nuts being proved to be more beneficial in this situation, both “regimens cut the heart risks knows as metabolic syndrome” in the majority of people than a “low-fat” diet would. My Aunt, located in the UK, always encouraged me to munch on nuts and since 2004 when I last saw her, I began to eat a variety of nuts on a more consistent basis and I did notice the benefits; I didn’t realize how beneficial they were until I started to do more research on them and after I started feeling more energetic and healthier.


The most surprising finding that these researchers discovered was that fact that there appeared to be “substantial metabolic benefits” with weight loss and calorie reduction. Results and Improvements that showed in individuals were told to eat about “three whole walnuts, seven or eight whole hazelnuts and seven or eight whole almonds” and these individuals noticed an improvement in their cholesterol, blood pressure and their appearance. These individuals did not particularly lose weight but they did find that there was a reduction in their belly fat. This is a pretty sweet deal, and this study does not even include any factor of exercising, just the finding of eating healthier. If you can commit to changing just minor eating habits you too can see these types of results, why not give yourself a challenge and try this today. Look out for our week long blogs about the benefits and continuing research on the healthiness of the incredible, edible ‘nut.’





Reference: [1] The Associated Press. “A nutty diet may cut heart disease risk.” Msnbc, 8 Dec. 2008. .

Wine Vs. Other Alcoholic Beverages

As we have discussed in previous blogs, wine consumption has been linked to “a reduced cardiovascular risk.” This study was done in a Mediterranean region, particular Spain, to show that when an individual drinks wine moderately compared to other alcoholic beverages there is a relation to having a lower morality rate in total. This finding also showed the difference in the way individuals that drink moderately eat compared to individuals that dank other alcoholic beverages. The main conclusion that came out of this study was that there is in fact a “better dietary pattern…found among nondrinkers than among drinkers.” Four specific questionnaires were conducted among participants with a trained dietitian present to see whether they preferred wine, beer, another kind of alcohol beverage or simply no alcohol at all. This study went into great detail on alcohol preference, for instance, one of the surveys specifically called a 137-item food frequency questionnaire listed wines such as “red, white, rose…and vintage wines” and liquors such as “anisette, whisky, vodka, gin and cognac.” Once individuals picked out their choices the participants were distributed into five drinking groups (nondrinkers, wine drinkers, beer drinkers, sprits drinkers, and no alcoholic beverage preference). After the alcohol preferences were sorted out it was time to figure out the participant’s dietary habits with relation to the Mediterranean Diet.

Using the Mediterranean dietary pattern the researchers constructed a system in order distribute points to the participants that consumed the proper food components such as vegetables, fruits, legumes, cereals, fish, and olive oil. Basically these scientists were trying to figure out, through the surveys that they conducted and also with the knowledge of the Mediterranean Diet, which members of these groups followed the Mediterranean Diet the best and what all of us, as food consumers, can learn from this? The scientists believed that the significance of this study was important in making individuals aware about their findings. All of the Mediterranean participants were at high cardiovascular risk and because they were all a high-risk group it was important for find out “if wine drinkers had a better dietary pattern that could explain the proposed health effects of wine.” Researchers believe that it is important to make aware of the health benefits of wine and to differentiate those benefits from other alcoholic beverages especially from those that are at “greater risk for developing cardiovascular disease.” Interestingly enough, other studies have shown that wine drinkers have healthier dietary habits which are also similar to the Mediterranean food pattern. These individuals also choose healthier paths in life and appear healthy in most aspects of their life such as having “a lower prevalence of smoking, a higher educational level, and healthier scores in psychological test assessing…self esteem, sensation seeking” and all of this is due to individuals that choose to drink wine instead of other alcoholic beverages.



Reference: [1] Carmona-Torre F de A, et al. “Relationship of alcoholic beverage consumption to food habits in a Mediterranean population.” Am J Health Promot. 2008 Sep-Oct; 23(1): 27-30.