Nuts 25 g Woman +1.65 years Man +2.09 years

Nuts 25 g Woman +1.65 years Man +2.09 years

My hand is a bowl - which I fill with walnuts and almonds. The hand holds 25 g, which is today’s goal. See and feel the shape of the walnuts and enjoy them being peeled. In my travels, I have enjoyed almond and walnut trees, and at literary Raffel’s bar in Singapore, they cracked the peanuts and threw the shells on the floor. In Sweden, the oak is my favorite tree. I collect its beautiful fruit, which is a nut, thinking that at least it’s fun for the squirrel to enjoy them.

The walnut is man’s oldest known nut, dating back to 10,000 years BC. The Chinese call the pistachio the “happy nut”; it is green, thanks to chlorophyll. It comes from the Greek pistáktion, the green nut, and has been eaten since 6000 BC.

Macadamia has the most rigid shell of all nuts and is picked when they have fallen to the ground. The Brazil nut tree can grow over 50 m tall and over 1000 years old in the Amazon. The flowers are pollinated only by orchid bees whose large tongues pry open the flower to collect nectar.

60% of the world’s nut consumption is peanuts (a legume), and four cities in the US are named peanuts. Cashew nuts are sold without the shell because it is poisonous. The pecan tree became the official tree of Texas in 1919, and Governor James Hogg loved it so much he wanted to be buried under it. Pecans come from North America, which accounts for 80% of the world’s harvest.

Almond trees come from the Mediterranean area, cultivated 3000 years ago. The trees depend on honey bees and wild bees for pollination. California grows 80% of the world’s almonds, of which 40% goes to the chocolate industry. The almond is a seed, and the shell used as animal feed.

Positive effects: Studies such as the Adventist Study, the Iowa Women’s Health Study, the Nurses’ Health Study, and the Physicians’ Health Study show a 30-50% lower risk of heart attack, cardiovascular disease, and sudden cardiac death if you eat nuts several times a week. The FDA now allows the text: “Eating a diet that includes one ounce of nuts daily may reduce the risk of heart disease.”

Nuts help the heart. Unsaturated fat lowers bad LDL cholesterol and raises good HDL cholesterol. Walnuts’ omega-3 fatty acids prevent irregular heart rhythms and blood clots (like aspirin without the side effects).

The study “Estimating the impact of food choices on life expectancy” shows that nuts help you live longer. An example of a longer lifespan is 25 g of nuts per day for a 20-year-old who consumes 2322 kcal: Woman +1.65 years, Man +2.09 years.

Fadnes LT, Økland J-M, Haaland ØA, Johansson KA (2022) https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=...

A study of 16,217 type 2 diabetics found that five 28g servings of nuts per week resulted in a 17% lower risk of cardiovascular disease. The Mediterranean diet was shown in one study to provide a 20% lower risk of developing coronary artery disease, a 34% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, and a 31% lower risk of premature death.
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/disea...

Nuts have vitamin E, folate, potassium, and fiber and are rich in arginine, which helps blood vessels relax and facilitates blood flow.

Liu G, Guasch-Ferré M, Hu Y, Li Y, Hu FB, Rimm EB, Manson JE, Rexode K, Sun Q. Beef consumption in relation to cardiovascular disease incidence and mortality among patients with diabetes mellitus. Circulation research. February 19, 2019.

In a study of obese people, those who ate pistachios had 33% lower triglyceride (blood fat) levels than the control group.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20833992/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26383493/

Walnuts, almonds, brazil nuts, and pistachios have been shown to fight inflammation in healthy people and those with diabetes and kidney disease.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26383493/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25396407/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24504745/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24607303/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22959886/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22722891/

Studies show that nut intake reduces inflammation, promotes healthy blood vessels, and reduces insulin resistance. Although nuts are high in calories, research does not see a connection between nuts and weight gain. They are linked to a lower risk of obesity. Maybe because the fat and fiber content makes you complete?

Guasch-Ferré M, Liu X, Malik VS, Sun Q, Willett WC, Manson JE, Rexrode KM, Li Y, Hu FB, Bhupathiraju SN. Nut consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 2017 Nov 21;70(20):2519-32.

Research shows that the body does not absorb all the calories from nuts. Some fat remains in the fiber wall of the beef during digestion.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21106921/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18716179/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25527747/

A portion of almonds of 28 grams has 160-170 calories, but the body only absorbs about 129 calories.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC33964...