Eating a small portion of nuts each day may be able to help you keep extra weight off.
The first study
In one study, researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health wanted to understand how eating nuts affected body weight. They had participants replace foods with low nutritional value with a 1-ounce servicing of nuts. They found that, over four years, they had lowered the risk of weight gain and obesity.
“People often see nuts as food items high in fat and calories, so they hesitate to consider them as healthy snacks,” explains Xiaoran Liu, Ph.D., a research association in the nutrition department at the facility. “But they are in fact associated with less weight gain and wellness. Once people reach adulthood, they start to gradually gain about 1 pound a year of weight, which seems small. But if you consider gaining one pound over 20 years, it accumulates to a lot of weight gain.”
The second study
For the second study, a team of researchers looked at the effects of eating Brazil nuts. They had 22 healthy adult participants add either 36 grams of pretzels or 20 grams of Brazil nuts to their normal diet in two trials.
Although the two snacks have about the same amount of sodium and calories, the participants who had the pretzels had significant increases in blood sugar and insulin levels 40 minutes after eating, but the participants who ate the nutty snack didn’t.
The theory is that the selenium in the healthy snack helps maintain insulin and blood sugar responses. It’s important to note that there were far more women than men in the study, however, so more research on men needs to be done.
“While both Brazil nuts and pretzels increased a sense of fullness after they were eaten, eating Brazil nuts stabilized postprandial (after eating) blood glucose and insulin levels, which may be beneficial in preventing diabetes and weight gain,” says Mee Young Hong, Ph.D., the senior author of the study. “Our study allows researchers and clinicians to consider the possible beneficial role of Brazil nuts to help people feel full and maintain a healthy level of glucose, reducing the risk of obesity and diabetes.”
