Some fairly recent analyses of the Adventist
Health Study findings showed a
remarkable relationship between eating nuts and whole wheat
bread, and experiencing a reduced risk for Coronary Heart
Disease (CHD). These findings were the subject of a research
article submitted by Dr. Fraser and his colleagues to the
Archives of Internal Medicine, and published in its July
1992 issue.
The most outstanding findings of this part of the overall
study show that nut consumption reduces the risk of both
fatal and nonfatal coronary heart disease. Again, the
researchers looked for a variety of ways to disprove the
finding, adjusting the data for differences in age, sex,
smoking habits, exercise, relative weight, and hypertension.
The protective qualities of nuts remained statistically
significant and essentially unchanged in magnitude.
Those individuals who ate nuts one to four times a week had
26% decrease in the risk of suffering from definite nonfatal
myocardial infarction (MI) and a 27% decrease in the risk of
definite fatal coronary heart disease as compared to those
who ate nuts less than once a week. However, those
individuals who ate nuts five or more times a week had a 48%
decrease in the risk of definite nonfatal heart attack and a
38% reduced risk of definite fatal CHD as compared to the
group who ate nuts less than once a week.
Age- and sex-adjusted analyses of the associations between
nut consumption and definite CHD were calculated for various
subgroups within the Adventist Health Study. Results were
examined to see if the association between nut consumption
and CHD held up in different segments of the population. The
consistency was quite remarkable and adds to the
researchers' confidence in the importance of these findings.
Both "ever-smokers" and "never-smokers" showed a 46%
decrease in the risk of coronary heart disease when they ate
nuts five or more times a week. Study participants with
normal blood pressure showed that eating nuts more than five
times a week reduced their risk of coronary heart disease by
60% percent, and hypertensive individuals enjoyed a 30%
decrease in risk compared to similar subjects who ate few
nuts.
Nuts are widely used here at The Wholefood Farmacy and you
can find them in many of our foods. In addition, the next
time you go to the grocery store, spend a few minutes
looking at all of the different types of nuts and consider
them in place of other processed food snacks such as potato
chips and cheese puffs. You’ll love them, your kids will
love them and your whole family will be much better off. Now
is the best time to put your kids on a path that leads to
health, vitality, longevity and happiness.
The Wholefood Farmacy Team
