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Whole Food Nutrition
Pecans Health Benefits
Pecans have it all. Besides being one of the most elegant,
versatile and rich-tasting nuts you can put on your plate,
they offer up a package of health benefits that’s very
impressive. In fact, the new 2005 Dietary Guidelines from
the U.S. Department of Agriculture recommend eating 4 to 5
servings of nuts each week.
The Mayo Clinic conducted a study which found that all nuts
are nutrient dense and naturally cholesterol free. Not only
are nuts cholesterol free but, studies have suggested that
eating pecans may help reduce LDL cholesterol levels,
leading to a reduction in the risk of heart attacks and
coronary artery disease. The serving size for nuts is about
one ounce, which equals about 15 pecan halves. Pecans are a
great staple for vegetarians, because one serving of pecans
can take the place of the protein found in an ounce of meat.
Pecans are also a rich source of oleic acid, the same type
of fatty acid found in olive oil. Researchers from
Northwestern University in Chicago recently found in
laboratory tests that oleic acid has the ability to suppress
the activity of a gene in cells thought to trigger breast
cancer. While this area of study is still in its early
stages, the researchers say it could eventually translate
into a recommendation to eat more foods rich in oleic acid,
like pecans and olive oil.
Researchers from Loma Linda University in California and New
Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico, have
confirmed that when pecans are part of the daily diet,
levels of “bad” cholesterol in the blood drop. Pecans get
their cholesterol-lowering ability from both the type of fat
they contain and the presence of beta-sitosterol, a natural
cholesterol-lowering compound. Eating 1 ˝ ounces of pecans a
day, when its part of a heart-healthy diet, can reduce the
risk of heart disease. Moreover, a study published in the
June 2004 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food
Chemistry found that pecans, hazelnuts, and walnuts
contained the highest antioxidant levels of all nuts tested.
The same natural compound that gives pecans its
cholesterol-lowering power, has also been shown to be
effective in treating the symptoms of benign prostatic
hyperplasia (BPH), a non-cancerous enlargement of the
prostate gland in men. About two ounces of pecans provides a
dose of beta-sitosterol found to be effective. In addition,
a recent laboratory study from Purdue University found that
gamma-tocopherol, the type of vitamin E found in pecans, has
the ability to kill prostate cancer cells while leaving
healthy cells alone. Last but not least, despite the widely
held belief that “nuts are fattening,” several population
studies have found that as nut consumption increased, body
fat actually decreased.
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