Go Nuts!

This year you can make a resolution entirely unrelated to cutting down on excess naughty goodness or increasing your ‘glow factor’: eating nuts! Adding nuts to your daily diet for a year may help reduce your risk for heart disease. A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine demonstrated a positive relationship between eating nuts and improved cholesterol and blood pressure. While individuals in the study did not sustain weight loss, there was a favorable reduction in belly fat corresponding to substantial metabolic benefits.

As with any study with too-good-to-be-true results, there is a caveat. The study was conducted on individuals heavily influenced with a diet rich in fruit, vegetables and fish. Therefore, adding nuts to a Western world diet, may not show the same effects UNLESS one is willing to cut down on processed foods (i.e. chips, cookies, Twinkies and cheese-its) and replace unhealthy snacks with protein rich nuts like hazelnuts, almonds or walnuts.

Pistachios are my fav…ok I know they are not on the list, but I mean the shear surprise of it all, will it be green or purple, big or small, fresh or roasted, salted or unsalted…the possibilities are endless. The show stopper is the one that has no opening, you put it between your teeth at an attempt to crack that bad boy open, bite down and gosh darn, it slips right out! Much like with that illusive pistachio, we need to take caution before diving face first in to research findings. So ask your doc before beginning a new diet plan.