Nuts: Rising Stars in the Battle Against Heart Disease

“Nuts to you!”

That’s the surprisingly cheery message from a group of Scandinavian researchers at six universities in Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. Their review of 42 scientific papers, published March in Food Nutrition Research, documents data from the diets of about 1,800,000 people to show that eating a daily handful of nuts seems to reduce your risk of heart disease by about 25 percent.

They’re not the first people to make this point. Six years ago, The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave companies selling Macadamia nuts and pecans permission to print a label claim that “Supportive but not conclusive research shows that eating 1.5 ounces per day of macadamia nuts, as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol and not resulting in increased intake of saturated fat or calories may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.”

Three years after that mouthful, experts at the Harvard Chan school reported that compared with people who never or almost never ate nuts those who munched an ounce or so several times a week appeared to end up as much as 20 percent less likely to develop coronary heart disease.

Why? Because, says, Erik Arnesen, a researcher at the University of Oslo, nuts are packed with unsaturated fatty acids that are linked to lower levels of cholesterol in the blood plus fiber, B vitamins, magnesium, and plant compounds such as phytosterols, and tocopherols the protect the heart. But, he adds, the rest of the diet matters: “If you only add nuts on top of lot of junk food and sweets, you will likely not get any healthier.”

What kind of nuts are best? The Scandinavians voted for almonds, pistachios, and walnuts. The American Heart Association’s list of faves adds hazelnuts and pecans, all in 1.5-ounce servings tossed into a salad or simply in a dish you dip into while watching TV.

The interesting factoid here is that practically everyone’s recommendations include peanuts–which aren’t really nuts. They make the cut as legumes, like beans such as chickpeas and lentils, which are also part of a heart protective diet. But go light on peanut butter which did not seem to offer any heart protections, perhaps, the Harvard guys said, because people tend to eat it with unhealthy food. Or more likely because its added sweeteners and salt cancel out the benefits.

P.S. For the record, the first person to toss out “nuts to you” was Brig. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe who, on December 22, 1944, told it to the Germans who demanded the Americans–who were encircled by heavily armored German divisions in Bastogne, Belgium and running out of food and ammunition–surrender within two hours. His now legendary reply: To the the German commander: NUTS The American Commander.

Three days later, reinforcements arrived to shore up the Americans who went on to push the Germans back into Germany in the Battle of the Bulge, the last major WWII German offensive campaign on the Western Front.

Even though there is no indication that the Americans’ daily K-rations included a packet of nuts.

Or powerful peanuts either.