Study: Eating Nuts Reduces Rate Of Heart Disease, Cancer
BOSTON (CBS) --- In the largest study of its kind, people who ate a daily handful of nuts were 20 percent less likely to die from any cause over a 30-year period than were those who didn't consume nuts.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Diane Stern reports
Study: Eating Nuts Reduces Heart Disease, Cancer Rates
That's according to new research in the New England Journal Of Medicine by researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and the Harvard School of Public Health.
According to the study, the regular nut-eaters were found to be more slender than those who didn't eat nuts, a finding that should alleviate the widespread worry that eating a lot of nuts will lead to extra pounds.
Perhaps the biggest breakthrough - the study found regularly consuming nuts showed a 29-percent reduction in deaths from heart disease.
There was an 11-percent reduction is cancer rates.
Whether any specific type or types of nuts were crucial to the protective effect couldn't be determined. However, the reduction in mortality was similar both for peanuts and for "tree nuts" – walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, macadamia, pecans, cashews, pistachios and pine nuts, the study says.
