Study nuts reduce the risk of cancer

Regular consumption of nuts, of any kind, according to a research work to reduce the risk of death significantly.

21/11/2013

This seems to emerge from the results of two long-term US studies. According to the consumption of nuts to reduce the risk of heart disease or cancer by about 20 percent. The study looked at the impact of daily nut consumption on health over a period of almost 30 years. This was reported by the physician Charles Fuchs of the Dana-Dyer Cancer Institute in Boston (Massachusetts) in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and his colleagues. There have been several smaller studies in the past that have highlighted the beneficial effects of nuts on health.

Nuts help lower blood lipid levels, protect against type 2 diabetes, and help cure inflammation. The new findings were won by US scientists from two large survey studies, each involving 76,500 women and 42,500 men since 1980 and 1986 respectively. The researchers wanted to examine the benefits of food based on information about diet, lifestyle and health. The participants made statements every two to four years. It showed up, „that there was a direct correlation between nut consumption and the reduction of the risk of dying“, so the researchers in their summary.

"The most obvious benefit was a 29 percent reduction in heart disease deaths - the biggest killer in the US," says Fuchs, according to a statement from his institute. "But we also saw a significant reduction - eleven percent - in the risk of dying of cancer."

Nuts are not fattening
It also showed that the more nuts the participants ate, the risk was further minimized. People who consumed nuts less than once a week had mortality rates that were seven percent lower than those who did not eat nuts. Those who consumed nuts only once a week increased protection to around eleven percent. With a consumption of two to four times a week, the value increased to 13 percent and five to six times to 15 percent. With daily consumption, it was even 20 percent. What nuts the participants ate, apparently did not matter.

In addition, the study refuted the widespread assumption that nuts per se thicken. Nut users were generally slimmer, according to the researchers, than people who did not consume such foods.

This aspect must certainly be viewed critically, because the nut industry is one of the financiers of the study. Whether the protective effect is actually attributable to the consumption of nuts, but could not be clearly documented with the data, said the doctors with.

However, there are tendencies that support this assumption. For the analysis of the data also considered the factors of a generally healthy diet and lifestyle. The German Society for Nutrition (DGE) also assumes that nuts reduce cholesterol and presumably protect against heart disease. This has already been proven by smaller studies in the past. Lowering blood lipid levels is most likely due to the presence of unsaturated fatty acids in the food. (Fr)

Picture: Marianne J.