Almonds Could Help Lower Cholesterol
Keep eating them, researchers say, because they might help lower cholesterol levels. Canadian researchers found that almonds significantly lowered bad cholesterol levels in a study of people with high cholesterol. The study, funded by The Almond Board of California and the Canadian government, is published in Monday's rapid access issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.Although some previous research has suggested that eating nuts reduces the risk of coronary heart disease, nuts generally aren't recommended because of their high calorie content, according to the study. Researchers from the University of Toronto studied 27 high cholesterol patients for three months. In the first month, each participant ate a full dose of almonds, averaging 74 grams a day. During the second month, they took a half dose of almonds, averaging 37 grams, which was described as a "handful" of almonds. In the last month, they ate a low-saturated fat, whole-wheat muffin as a daily snack.
They found that patients reduced LDL cholesterol -- or "bad" cholesterol -- levels an average 4.4 percent with the half portion of almonds and 9.4 percent with the full portion.The patients' cholesterol levels did not significantly drop after the muffin phase.Dr. David Jenkins, Canada research chairman in nutrition and metabolism at the university, said that practitioners should encourage patients to eat almonds as part of a healthy balanced diet as long as they are natural or "dry roasted" without added oils or salts.Nuts do not have cholesterol and are a good source of protein, according to the American Heart Association. However, the association stresses that the potential benefits of nuts may be negated if they are added rather than substituted for other foods in the diet. While nuts and seeds tend to be very high in fat and calories, most of the fat is polyunsaturated or monounsaturated, such as in almonds, pecans, and walnuts.
