The Exciting Health Benefits of Walnuts

Sharon Moore May 29, 2013

Preparing a healthy vegetable salad? Why not replace the traditional, high-calorie croutons with crushed walnuts? Why not? Aside from its savoury taste, walnuts are packed with amazing health benefits that will really surprise you! From boosting your heart health to lowering your risk of infertility – walnuts are among the best nuts to add in your daily diet.

Walnuts and Your Heart

Eating a handful of walnuts or consuming a few ounces of walnut oil during and after meal can slash your risk of developing heart disease by helping your body regulate its bad cholesterol levels. That’s according to the study recently conducted by the Pennsylvania State University. The oil, in particular, is the component in walnut that is responsible for its pro-heart benefits. Their study, which was published in the Journal of Nutrition, does not only promote the healthy transport and metabolism of cholesterol, but also boost levels of high-density lipoprotein or the good cholesterol.

Walnuts were also found to lower blood pressure in both men and women and reduce the overall risk of coronary heart disease. Another study published in the Journal of Nutrition in year 2004 found that the alpha-linolenic acid content in walnuts helps reduce inflammation and all other lipid cardiovascular risk factors that may lead to heart disease.

Walnuts and Your Reproductive Health

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) found that men who ate 75 grams of walnuts daily (equivalent to two handfuls) had an improvement in their semen quality as compared to those who didn’t eat walnuts. According to the researchers, men who ate walnuts over the course of the study boost their sperm vitality, motility, and morphology. As bonus, they also obtained high levels of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids which are all important for brain and heart health. The research team believe that these benefits are due to the a-linolenic acid, a natural plant source of omega-3. However, they emphasised the need for more studies to see if eating walnuts regularly could actually help improve the chance of having a baby in men who have fertility problems.

Walnuts and Your Brain

These tasty nuts are regarded as a symbol of intellectuality since the ancient times. That’s because the kernels of walnuts have a convoluted shape that when you crack it open, you see the nut inside which looks like a human brain! Well, science has shown that indeed, walnuts are food for the brain. A study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease suggests that eating walnuts as part of the Mediterranean diet may protect the brain from the harmful effects caused by ageing. According to the researchers who followed 447 people ages 50 to 80, walnuts were linked to improved memory whilst other nuts were not.

Walnuts and Your Risk of Cancer

Walnuts have been shown to contain the most diverse arrays of antioxidant nutrients as compared to other nuts (such as cashews, hazelnuts, pecans and pistachios) – a fact that makes it an effective preventive measure for cancer. In a study in mice, scientists at Marshall University found that eating walnuts everyday seemed to halve the risk of developing cancer. Their findings, which were published in the journal Nutrition and Cancer, showed that even in mice that developed cancer, their tumours were smaller and fewer. Apart from breast cancer, walnuts have also been shown to reduce the risk of prostate cancer. In the research presented at the American Chemical Society in 2010, mice engineered to have prostate cancer and were fed with diets high in fats, including walnuts, had slow-growing tumours than the mice fed with low fats.

See? These things make walnuts a great addition to a healthy lifestyle! Apart from improving your health, walnuts can also boost your eating experience as they add texture and crunch to usual dishes. Top them on your salads or use walnut oil as your dressing, pair them with cheese, stir them into a classic coffee cake or cookie, or roast them – walnuts are just among the best! Yum!

For you, what’s the best way to eat walnuts? Share your ideas by posting a comment below.