Nuts are the best-studied snack in nutrition. A small handful a day is enough. Regular eaters die less often, mostly from less heart disease. They are calorie-dense, yet long-term studies do not find waists expanding because of them.
Thirty years of follow-up in about 119,000 US health professionals found those eating nuts seven or more times a week had 20 percent lower all-cause mortality than those who never ate them, and nut eaters were actually leaner despite the calories (Bao et al., NEJM 2013). Trial evidence exists too: in the PREDIMED randomised trial, older adults at cardiovascular risk who were given about 30 g of mixed nuts a day inside a Mediterranean diet had roughly 30 percent fewer major cardiovascular events than the control group (Estruch et al., NEJM 2018). Moderate, not strong, because the big cohorts rely on self-reported questionnaires and self-selected healthy eaters, and the trial ran in one population of older Spaniards rather than across ages and countries. The effect size is nonetheless large for something so easy.
Doing it: About 30 g a day, a small handful, unsalted. Any unsalted tree nuts or peanuts count, store brands included. Swap them in for biscuits or crisps rather than adding them on top of what you already eat.
Who it suits: Nearly everyone except people with a nut allergy; a sensible default snack if you currently reach for something from a packet
Sources
- Bao Y, et al. Association of nut consumption with total and cause-specific mortality. N Engl J Med 2013.
- Estruch R, et al. Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease with a Mediterranean Diet Supplemented with Extra-Virgin Olive Oil or Nuts. N Engl J Med 2018.
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