I agree with Jeff, it's one thing I forgot. Dark chocolate is the one "treat" I allow myself, usually about 1 oz. a day. I am something of a dark chocolate afficianado, but I also have a family history of heart disease, so I consider it like a daily vitamin.
-
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Cutting down on sugar intake?
- Thread starter cockroachfarm
- Start date
Holger, I switched to various "sweetners" about a year or two ago and never lost an ounce. Seems like the only real way to go is exercise. You and I are about the same size and if we told the truth the most excercise we get is walking the floor at Blade for 3 days. 
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2001
- Messages
- 4,399
Just so there's no misunderstanding, I am TRYING to change my eating/living habits in other ways too. I just thought that switching from sugar to a sweetener in my coffee was a tiny, simple thing I could do.
I KNOW that exercise is mostly what's lacking in my case; as soon as I no longer have pain in my heel/arch, I will start up my walking program again (great - just with winter starting
) Maybe I'll become one of those "mall walkers"! 
And - I LOVE almonds! I have a jar filled with dry, plain almonds (not roasted in 'garlic salt'!) sitting right next to my computer and when I feel a craving for a snack, that's what I reach for now (well, most of the time ) Question: what quantity of almonds can you safely eat in a day? I could munch on several cupfuls during a day if I was so inclined.
(fwiw, there's no history of heart problems on either side of our family; kidney problems and hereditary stupidity, yes, but no cardiac problems.)
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I KNOW that exercise is mostly what's lacking in my case; as soon as I no longer have pain in my heel/arch, I will start up my walking program again (great - just with winter starting
) Maybe I'll become one of those "mall walkers"! And - I LOVE almonds! I have a jar filled with dry, plain almonds (not roasted in 'garlic salt'!) sitting right next to my computer and when I feel a craving for a snack, that's what I reach for now (well, most of the time
) Question: what quantity of almonds can you safely eat in a day? I could munch on several cupfuls during a day if I was so inclined.(fwiw, there's no history of heart problems on either side of our family; kidney problems and hereditary stupidity, yes, but no cardiac problems.)
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cockroachfarm said:And - I LOVE almonds! I have a jar filled with dry, plain almonds (not roasted in 'garlic salt'!) sitting right next to my computer and when I feel a craving for a snack, that's what I reach for now (well, most of the time
.
As far as being safe, I don't think it would hurt you to eat almonds in that quantity. (Other than very likely causing the runs from the oil in the nuts, which can cause dehydration of course). The problem with eating a lot of nuts when trying to lose weight is that nuts are an energy food, not what you want if you aren't active. They have a lot of calories per serving compared to other snacks. If you aren't getting a good bit of exercise, I don't recommend them.
If you want a snack for impulse munching, try raw carrot sticks, celery sticks, etc...Some sort of snack that will satisfy the "munchie" need without adding calories to your diet....nuts, relatively, add a whole bunch per serving, not merely from what they are roasted in, but from their natural oils and fats.
- Joined
- Apr 27, 1999
- Messages
- 6,117
Most of the clinical studies use around 2 or 3 ounces of almonds or other nuts per day:
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Clin. Cardiol. 22, (Suppl. III), III-11III-15 (1999)
Nut Consumption, Lipids, and Risk of a Coronary Event
Gary E. Fraser, M.B. Ch.B., Ph.D.
Center for Health Research, School of Public Health, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, California, USA
Summary: In the past, many have avoided nuts because of their high fat content. The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, however, recommends regular consumption of this food along with seeds and dried beans (45 servings per week) as part of a diet to control hypertension. Nuts are nutrient-dense and most of their fat is unsaturated. They are also perhaps the best natural source of vitamin E and are relatively concentrated repositories of dietary fiber, magnesium, potassium, and arginine, the dietary precursor of nitric oxide. Human feeding studies have demonstrated reductions of 812% in low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol when almonds and walnuts are substituted for more traditional fats. Other studies show that macadamias and hazelnuts appear at least as beneficial as fats in commonly recommended diets. Whether consuming modest quantities of nuts daily may promote weight gain is not known with certainty, but preliminary data suggest that this is unlikely. Four of the best and largest cohort studies in nutritional epidemiology have now reported that eating nuts frequently is associated with a decreased risk of coronary heart disease of the order of 3050%. The findings are very consistent in subgroup analyses and unlikely to be due to confounding. Possible mechanisms include reduction in LDL cholesterol, the antioxidant actions of vitamin E, and the effects on the endothelium and platelet function of higher levels of nitric oxide. Although nuts may account for a relatively small percentage of dietary calories, the potential interacting effects of these factors on disease risk may be considerable.
Key words: nuts, lipids, coronary heart disease, vitamin E
Introduction
For many years there has been a strong opinion that dietary habits affect coronary risk factors and hence probably the risk of a coronary event. The evidence is now overwhelming that consumption of dietary fats, oats, and other sources of fiber, as well as a small number of phytochemicals, affect blood lipids, and that consumption of alcohol, potassium, sodium, and a vegetarian diet influence blood pressure levels. However, there is much less direct evidence that diet affects the frequency of coronary events. This is probably largely related to the difficulties of accurately measuring dietary habits. A few good population studies have implicated dietary fats,1, 2 as expected on the basis of nutritional research. Others could not show these effects. There is some support for the idea that fish consumption may be protective,3 but surprisingly such an effect may be mainly seen at quite low intake.
Much of the practice of preventive cardiology is burdened with the problem of coercing reluctant patients to change habits which they enjoy (smoking, eating food high in saturated fat, physical inactivity). It is a pleasing change to note increasing evidence for a probably protective food that most people will eat more frequently with little persuasion. I refer to the consumption of modest quantities of nuts.
A Brief Note on the Chemistry of Nuts
Nuts are fatty foods and as such have been treated with caution in most previous dietary recommendations. Indeed, about 80% of the calories in most nuts come from fat, but this is largely monounsaturated (polyunsaturated in walnuts). Nuts also contain significant quantities of dietary fiber, potassium, magnesium, and copper. They are perhaps the best natural source of antioxidant vitamin E, and are also rich in arginine, the dietary precursor of nitric oxide.
In Tables I and II, as an example, the content of these factors is examined in almonds compared with a number of other common fatty foods of animal origin. In most cases, the contrast is quite dramatic, demonstrating that it is probably not appropriate to group nuts with meats and dairy products as is currently the case in the USDA food pyramid. More recent dietary recommendations such as those developed for the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet,4, 5 by Oldways Foundation,6 or those for vegetarians,7 place nuts more appropriately with seeds and legumes. In addition, along with many other vegetable foods, nuts are a storehouse for a large number of phytochemicals that are presently less well defined. However, these substances include at least certain flavonoids, other polyphenols, and sterols that may well have biological activity.
The Effect of Nut Consumption on Blood Cholesterol Levels
Several studies of various design have evaluated the effect of consumption of almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts and macadamias on blood cholesterol levels. A study of pecans is underway. Some have simply recommended nuts and nut oils as a supplement to be incorporated into the diet; others control the other fats in the diet and/or the foods for which the nuts are substituted.
Berry et al.8, 9 used either almonds, olive oil, or avocados as a source of fat in a diet, thus increasing the quantities of monounsaturated fats (MUFA), or walnuts, safflower, and soy to increase polyunsaturated fats (PUFA). These two diets were compared with each other or with a third high-carbohydrate diet in two separate studies. These studies were randomized crossover feeding trials involving 17 or 18 young men over two 12-week feeding periods. The investigators controlled the whole diet, with the MUFA and PUFA diets having 34% and 33% of calories as total fat, respectively. Compared with the baseline diet, both the high MUFA and high PUFA diets had quite similar effects, lowering total and LDL cholesterol levels 1020% and not changing high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. When compared with the high-carbohydrate diet, the high MUFA diet lowered total and LDL cholesterol.
Spiller et al. have reported three studies with an emphasis on the effect of almonds/almond oil on blood lipids. In the first study,10 two groups totaling 30 hypercholesterolemic subjects were given careful dietary advice and quite different fatty supplements in a parallel study design. Each group participated in the study for 4 weeks. The first group adhered to a low-fat base diet plus a 100 g/day supplement of almonds. The second group had the same low-fat base diet, plus 48 g of fat froM.B.tter and cheese. While on the diets, the first group experienced a 15% drop in total cholesterol compared with the second group.
In the second study,11 the almonds were supplemental to a partially controlled "usual" diet for which limited dietary advice was given. The foundation of the recommended "usual" diet was grains, beans, vegetables, fruit, and low-fat milk products. Meat and high-fat dairy products were minimized. The 26 men and women from a cardiac rehabilitation unit took a supplement of 100 g/day of almonds and almond oil for 9 weeks, on average consuming 37% of total calories as fat. Again, compared with the "usual diet", total and LDL cholesterol declined 9% and 12%, respectively.
For the third study,12 Spiller et al. enrolled 48 hypercholesterolemic subjects with mean baseline total cholesterol of 251 mg/dl. Careful instructions were given to help subjects conform to a recommended baseline diet, which was then supplemented with either (1) 100 g almonds, (2) 48 g olive oil and 113 g cottage cheese, or (3) 85 g cheddar cheese, 28 g butter, each day for four weeks in a parallel study design. By the end of the study, total cholesterol levels had changed to 222 mg/dl, 240 mg/dl, and 263 mg/dl, respectively (differences significant p < 0.001). Similar significant changes were seen for LDL cholesterol, but there was virtually no effect on HDL cholesterol.
Sabaté et al.13 conducted a carefully controlled crossover feeding study in 18 young men. All meals were fed during two 4-week dietary periods. In one diet, a basic diet was supplemented with 85 g/day of walnuts, and during the control period by equivalent fat calories from more traditional foods. Although both the control and the walnut diets contained only 30% of calories as fat, much of the fat in the latter was polyunsaturated, while the control diet had 10% of calories from each of saturated fatty acids, MUFA, and PUFA. Total cholesterol dropped 12.4%, LDL 16.3%, and a nonsignificant smaller drop was also seen in HDL cholesterol.
Another recently completed study of walnut supplementation in subjects with elevated serum cholesterol has also demonstrated significant lowering of lipid levels.14 Abbey et al.15 in Australia trained 16 men to record their fat consumption and then provided supplements to be added to the basic diet. The first supplement was constructed to match the fatty acid profile of the Australian diet, the second consisted of 84 g of MUFA-rich almonds, and the third of 68 g of PUFA-rich walnuts. During successive 3-week periods, LDL cholesterol was lower by 10.3% and 8.9%, respectively, with almonds and walnuts, whereas HDL cholesterol did not change.
Two other studies have evaluated the effects of supplementing relatively low-fat, high-carbohydrate diets with macadamia nuts.16, 17 In each case, despite the increase in total fat, as most of this was monounsaturated, blood lipid levels did not change, except for a nonsignificant 9% rise in HDL cholesterol. Finally, a feeding study of 70 children and 104 adults, in which the intervention was a supplement of hazelnuts, will soon be reported. Again the effects on blood lipids appeared beneficial, with an increase in HDL and a fall in LDL cholesterol. There was no significant change in body weight.18
Nut Consumption and Obesity
Some worry that advocating increased use of a fatty food may further aggravate the serious problem of obesity in the United States. This important question cannot yet be clearly addressed with data, but a few clues suggest that this may not be the case. A study in rats indicates that just as different types of dietary fatty acids affect blood cholesterol differently, the same may be true of their effects on body fat. When fed calories as saturated fat, they increased body fat much more and "burned" much less (as indicated by the respiratory quotient), than those fed equivalent polyunsaturated fat calories.19
Several investigators have noted that in certain human nut feeding studies that included only limited dietary advice, weight gain was not a problem despite supplements of several hundred calories of nuts and/or nut fat each day.11, 17, 20 We have almost completed a study that formally tested the hypothesis that adding a supplement of 320 calories of almonds daily with no dietary advice does not change body weight. Preliminary results suggest that this is so.21 Suggested explanations for such a possible result include a satiety effect of nuts compensating for the additional nut calories by decreased intake of other foods; limited absorption of the fat due to the nut fiber or poor mastication; or an unexplained metabolic effect whereby nut fats are "burned" rather than stored, perhaps associated with a higher metabolic rate.
Directly Observed Associations between Nut Consumption and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease Events
We first observed22 that those who consume nuts frequently had an approximately 50% lower risk of either a fatal or a nonfatal coronary event than those who eat nuts rarely. There was an apparent doseresponse association (Fig. 1) shown in a cohort study of 34,000 non-Hispanic, Caucasian California Seventh-Day Adventists. The number of events in Figure 1 is, of course, reflective of the total number of subjects at risk in each group as well as the CHD risk. Of these Adventist subjects, nearly 25% ate nuts five times each week or more. However, many others rarely ate nuts, so a comparison with good statistical power was possible. It was impressive to us that however we divided the data, the "nut effect" was always seen. Men, women, vegetarians, omnivores, hypertensives, nonhypertensives, relatively obese or relatively thin subjects, older or younger subjects, who ate large quantities of nuts, all had a substantially lower CHD risk than their counterparts eating lower quantities of nuts (Table III). Multivariate analyses, adjusting for traditional risk factors and several other foods, did not change these findings in any important way. We have subsequently reported23 that a protective association with nut consumption is still clearly found in the oldest-old Adventists (over age 84 years), and that in multivariate analyses, African American Adventists who consume nuts more frequently experience a lower total mortality.24 Other results show that the consumers of larger quantities of nuts in the non-Hispanic, Caucasian Adventists population have lower total mortality.25 Lifetable analyses indicate that consumers of high quantities of nuts experience an extra 5.6 years of life expectancy free of coronary disease and an 18% lifetime risk of CHD compared with 30% in consumers of low quantities of nuts.26
The Iowa Women's Study27, 28 of 34,000 women also found that higher nut consumption was associated with a 40% reduction in risk. This was despite the fact that, in this population, the highest category of nut consumption was relatively low at greater than once per week. They speculated that this was partly due to the vitamin E content of nuts, as adjustment for vitamin E reduced the apparent protection to 28%.
Findings from the 86,000 nurses in the Nurses' Health Study29 confirm previous observations. After adjusting for traditional risk factors, those consuming nuts frequently (at least five ounces/week) had a 39% reduction (p = 0.007) in fatal CHD events and a 32% reduction (p = 0.04) in nonfatal myocardial infarction compared with those eating less than 1 ounce of nuts per week. Further adjustment for intake of dietary fats, fiber, vegetables, and fruits did not greatly change these results. The authors also reported results in 32 different subgroups of the population. In every case, those consuming higher quantities of nuts had a lower risk than those "almost never" consuming nuts, and in 25 and 29 of these subgroups p for trend was < 0.05 or 0.01, respectively, a remarkable degree of consistency. Their analyses suggested that these findings applied to peanuts as well as tree nuts. Peanuts are legumes but have a nutrient profile broadly similar to other nuts.
Finally, the Physicians' Health Study of 22,000 male physicians found a significantly decreasing risk of cardiac death and sudden death as nut consumption increased.30 These trends persisted on multivariate adjustment.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Clin. Cardiol. 22, (Suppl. III), III-11III-15 (1999)
Nut Consumption, Lipids, and Risk of a Coronary Event
Gary E. Fraser, M.B. Ch.B., Ph.D.
Center for Health Research, School of Public Health, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, California, USA
Summary: In the past, many have avoided nuts because of their high fat content. The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, however, recommends regular consumption of this food along with seeds and dried beans (45 servings per week) as part of a diet to control hypertension. Nuts are nutrient-dense and most of their fat is unsaturated. They are also perhaps the best natural source of vitamin E and are relatively concentrated repositories of dietary fiber, magnesium, potassium, and arginine, the dietary precursor of nitric oxide. Human feeding studies have demonstrated reductions of 812% in low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol when almonds and walnuts are substituted for more traditional fats. Other studies show that macadamias and hazelnuts appear at least as beneficial as fats in commonly recommended diets. Whether consuming modest quantities of nuts daily may promote weight gain is not known with certainty, but preliminary data suggest that this is unlikely. Four of the best and largest cohort studies in nutritional epidemiology have now reported that eating nuts frequently is associated with a decreased risk of coronary heart disease of the order of 3050%. The findings are very consistent in subgroup analyses and unlikely to be due to confounding. Possible mechanisms include reduction in LDL cholesterol, the antioxidant actions of vitamin E, and the effects on the endothelium and platelet function of higher levels of nitric oxide. Although nuts may account for a relatively small percentage of dietary calories, the potential interacting effects of these factors on disease risk may be considerable.
Key words: nuts, lipids, coronary heart disease, vitamin E
Introduction
For many years there has been a strong opinion that dietary habits affect coronary risk factors and hence probably the risk of a coronary event. The evidence is now overwhelming that consumption of dietary fats, oats, and other sources of fiber, as well as a small number of phytochemicals, affect blood lipids, and that consumption of alcohol, potassium, sodium, and a vegetarian diet influence blood pressure levels. However, there is much less direct evidence that diet affects the frequency of coronary events. This is probably largely related to the difficulties of accurately measuring dietary habits. A few good population studies have implicated dietary fats,1, 2 as expected on the basis of nutritional research. Others could not show these effects. There is some support for the idea that fish consumption may be protective,3 but surprisingly such an effect may be mainly seen at quite low intake.
Much of the practice of preventive cardiology is burdened with the problem of coercing reluctant patients to change habits which they enjoy (smoking, eating food high in saturated fat, physical inactivity). It is a pleasing change to note increasing evidence for a probably protective food that most people will eat more frequently with little persuasion. I refer to the consumption of modest quantities of nuts.
A Brief Note on the Chemistry of Nuts
Nuts are fatty foods and as such have been treated with caution in most previous dietary recommendations. Indeed, about 80% of the calories in most nuts come from fat, but this is largely monounsaturated (polyunsaturated in walnuts). Nuts also contain significant quantities of dietary fiber, potassium, magnesium, and copper. They are perhaps the best natural source of antioxidant vitamin E, and are also rich in arginine, the dietary precursor of nitric oxide.
In Tables I and II, as an example, the content of these factors is examined in almonds compared with a number of other common fatty foods of animal origin. In most cases, the contrast is quite dramatic, demonstrating that it is probably not appropriate to group nuts with meats and dairy products as is currently the case in the USDA food pyramid. More recent dietary recommendations such as those developed for the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet,4, 5 by Oldways Foundation,6 or those for vegetarians,7 place nuts more appropriately with seeds and legumes. In addition, along with many other vegetable foods, nuts are a storehouse for a large number of phytochemicals that are presently less well defined. However, these substances include at least certain flavonoids, other polyphenols, and sterols that may well have biological activity.
The Effect of Nut Consumption on Blood Cholesterol Levels
Several studies of various design have evaluated the effect of consumption of almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts and macadamias on blood cholesterol levels. A study of pecans is underway. Some have simply recommended nuts and nut oils as a supplement to be incorporated into the diet; others control the other fats in the diet and/or the foods for which the nuts are substituted.
Berry et al.8, 9 used either almonds, olive oil, or avocados as a source of fat in a diet, thus increasing the quantities of monounsaturated fats (MUFA), or walnuts, safflower, and soy to increase polyunsaturated fats (PUFA). These two diets were compared with each other or with a third high-carbohydrate diet in two separate studies. These studies were randomized crossover feeding trials involving 17 or 18 young men over two 12-week feeding periods. The investigators controlled the whole diet, with the MUFA and PUFA diets having 34% and 33% of calories as total fat, respectively. Compared with the baseline diet, both the high MUFA and high PUFA diets had quite similar effects, lowering total and LDL cholesterol levels 1020% and not changing high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. When compared with the high-carbohydrate diet, the high MUFA diet lowered total and LDL cholesterol.
Spiller et al. have reported three studies with an emphasis on the effect of almonds/almond oil on blood lipids. In the first study,10 two groups totaling 30 hypercholesterolemic subjects were given careful dietary advice and quite different fatty supplements in a parallel study design. Each group participated in the study for 4 weeks. The first group adhered to a low-fat base diet plus a 100 g/day supplement of almonds. The second group had the same low-fat base diet, plus 48 g of fat froM.B.tter and cheese. While on the diets, the first group experienced a 15% drop in total cholesterol compared with the second group.
In the second study,11 the almonds were supplemental to a partially controlled "usual" diet for which limited dietary advice was given. The foundation of the recommended "usual" diet was grains, beans, vegetables, fruit, and low-fat milk products. Meat and high-fat dairy products were minimized. The 26 men and women from a cardiac rehabilitation unit took a supplement of 100 g/day of almonds and almond oil for 9 weeks, on average consuming 37% of total calories as fat. Again, compared with the "usual diet", total and LDL cholesterol declined 9% and 12%, respectively.
For the third study,12 Spiller et al. enrolled 48 hypercholesterolemic subjects with mean baseline total cholesterol of 251 mg/dl. Careful instructions were given to help subjects conform to a recommended baseline diet, which was then supplemented with either (1) 100 g almonds, (2) 48 g olive oil and 113 g cottage cheese, or (3) 85 g cheddar cheese, 28 g butter, each day for four weeks in a parallel study design. By the end of the study, total cholesterol levels had changed to 222 mg/dl, 240 mg/dl, and 263 mg/dl, respectively (differences significant p < 0.001). Similar significant changes were seen for LDL cholesterol, but there was virtually no effect on HDL cholesterol.
Sabaté et al.13 conducted a carefully controlled crossover feeding study in 18 young men. All meals were fed during two 4-week dietary periods. In one diet, a basic diet was supplemented with 85 g/day of walnuts, and during the control period by equivalent fat calories from more traditional foods. Although both the control and the walnut diets contained only 30% of calories as fat, much of the fat in the latter was polyunsaturated, while the control diet had 10% of calories from each of saturated fatty acids, MUFA, and PUFA. Total cholesterol dropped 12.4%, LDL 16.3%, and a nonsignificant smaller drop was also seen in HDL cholesterol.
Another recently completed study of walnut supplementation in subjects with elevated serum cholesterol has also demonstrated significant lowering of lipid levels.14 Abbey et al.15 in Australia trained 16 men to record their fat consumption and then provided supplements to be added to the basic diet. The first supplement was constructed to match the fatty acid profile of the Australian diet, the second consisted of 84 g of MUFA-rich almonds, and the third of 68 g of PUFA-rich walnuts. During successive 3-week periods, LDL cholesterol was lower by 10.3% and 8.9%, respectively, with almonds and walnuts, whereas HDL cholesterol did not change.
Two other studies have evaluated the effects of supplementing relatively low-fat, high-carbohydrate diets with macadamia nuts.16, 17 In each case, despite the increase in total fat, as most of this was monounsaturated, blood lipid levels did not change, except for a nonsignificant 9% rise in HDL cholesterol. Finally, a feeding study of 70 children and 104 adults, in which the intervention was a supplement of hazelnuts, will soon be reported. Again the effects on blood lipids appeared beneficial, with an increase in HDL and a fall in LDL cholesterol. There was no significant change in body weight.18
Nut Consumption and Obesity
Some worry that advocating increased use of a fatty food may further aggravate the serious problem of obesity in the United States. This important question cannot yet be clearly addressed with data, but a few clues suggest that this may not be the case. A study in rats indicates that just as different types of dietary fatty acids affect blood cholesterol differently, the same may be true of their effects on body fat. When fed calories as saturated fat, they increased body fat much more and "burned" much less (as indicated by the respiratory quotient), than those fed equivalent polyunsaturated fat calories.19
Several investigators have noted that in certain human nut feeding studies that included only limited dietary advice, weight gain was not a problem despite supplements of several hundred calories of nuts and/or nut fat each day.11, 17, 20 We have almost completed a study that formally tested the hypothesis that adding a supplement of 320 calories of almonds daily with no dietary advice does not change body weight. Preliminary results suggest that this is so.21 Suggested explanations for such a possible result include a satiety effect of nuts compensating for the additional nut calories by decreased intake of other foods; limited absorption of the fat due to the nut fiber or poor mastication; or an unexplained metabolic effect whereby nut fats are "burned" rather than stored, perhaps associated with a higher metabolic rate.
Directly Observed Associations between Nut Consumption and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease Events
We first observed22 that those who consume nuts frequently had an approximately 50% lower risk of either a fatal or a nonfatal coronary event than those who eat nuts rarely. There was an apparent doseresponse association (Fig. 1) shown in a cohort study of 34,000 non-Hispanic, Caucasian California Seventh-Day Adventists. The number of events in Figure 1 is, of course, reflective of the total number of subjects at risk in each group as well as the CHD risk. Of these Adventist subjects, nearly 25% ate nuts five times each week or more. However, many others rarely ate nuts, so a comparison with good statistical power was possible. It was impressive to us that however we divided the data, the "nut effect" was always seen. Men, women, vegetarians, omnivores, hypertensives, nonhypertensives, relatively obese or relatively thin subjects, older or younger subjects, who ate large quantities of nuts, all had a substantially lower CHD risk than their counterparts eating lower quantities of nuts (Table III). Multivariate analyses, adjusting for traditional risk factors and several other foods, did not change these findings in any important way. We have subsequently reported23 that a protective association with nut consumption is still clearly found in the oldest-old Adventists (over age 84 years), and that in multivariate analyses, African American Adventists who consume nuts more frequently experience a lower total mortality.24 Other results show that the consumers of larger quantities of nuts in the non-Hispanic, Caucasian Adventists population have lower total mortality.25 Lifetable analyses indicate that consumers of high quantities of nuts experience an extra 5.6 years of life expectancy free of coronary disease and an 18% lifetime risk of CHD compared with 30% in consumers of low quantities of nuts.26
The Iowa Women's Study27, 28 of 34,000 women also found that higher nut consumption was associated with a 40% reduction in risk. This was despite the fact that, in this population, the highest category of nut consumption was relatively low at greater than once per week. They speculated that this was partly due to the vitamin E content of nuts, as adjustment for vitamin E reduced the apparent protection to 28%.
Findings from the 86,000 nurses in the Nurses' Health Study29 confirm previous observations. After adjusting for traditional risk factors, those consuming nuts frequently (at least five ounces/week) had a 39% reduction (p = 0.007) in fatal CHD events and a 32% reduction (p = 0.04) in nonfatal myocardial infarction compared with those eating less than 1 ounce of nuts per week. Further adjustment for intake of dietary fats, fiber, vegetables, and fruits did not greatly change these results. The authors also reported results in 32 different subgroups of the population. In every case, those consuming higher quantities of nuts had a lower risk than those "almost never" consuming nuts, and in 25 and 29 of these subgroups p for trend was < 0.05 or 0.01, respectively, a remarkable degree of consistency. Their analyses suggested that these findings applied to peanuts as well as tree nuts. Peanuts are legumes but have a nutrient profile broadly similar to other nuts.
Finally, the Physicians' Health Study of 22,000 male physicians found a significantly decreasing risk of cardiac death and sudden death as nut consumption increased.30 These trends persisted on multivariate adjustment.
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2001
- Messages
- 4,399
Sryth, you're not the chief nutritionist at Patrick, are you?
Thanks for all the good advice. I know that the sugar and the nuts and the whatever are not going to play a major part (if any) in actually LOSING weight. I KNOW that getting in some exercise is the key. Willpower is the major missing ingredient in my sorry case.
If there's a chocolate bar calling to me from the kitchen counter, I can resist. If there's that last donut crying out to be saved from extinction, I can heed the cry and walk past.
However - if I had "planned" to go out this morning and walk a few blocks...and then I look outside and there's a light drizzle starting and it's getting colder and there's a script waiting on my desk to be revised.....
.
.
....can you BUY or BORROW willpower anywhere?
.
.
Thanks for all the good advice. I know that the sugar and the nuts and the whatever are not going to play a major part (if any) in actually LOSING weight. I KNOW that getting in some exercise is the key. Willpower is the major missing ingredient in my sorry case.
If there's a chocolate bar calling to me from the kitchen counter, I can resist. If there's that last donut crying out to be saved from extinction, I can heed the cry and walk past.
However - if I had "planned" to go out this morning and walk a few blocks...and then I look outside and there's a light drizzle starting and it's getting colder and there's a script waiting on my desk to be revised.....
.
.
....can you BUY or BORROW willpower anywhere?
.
.
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2001
- Messages
- 4,399
Mr. Clark - I take it that's the 'condensed' version?
I actually spent some time reading all the stuff on the California Almond Growers website (or something like that) and I read that you can use a cup or so of almonds as a SUBSTITUTE for a meal! I can do that!
(It's embarrassing to admit this, but even STARTING to ask about this kind of stuff is a big step forward for me! Sad, ain't it? Oh, well - better late than never.)
I actually spent some time reading all the stuff on the California Almond Growers website (or something like that) and I read that you can use a cup or so of almonds as a SUBSTITUTE for a meal! I can do that!
(It's embarrassing to admit this, but even STARTING to ask about this kind of stuff is a big step forward for me! Sad, ain't it? Oh, well - better late than never.)
- Joined
- Apr 27, 1999
- Messages
- 6,117
That is the condensed version. I tried to submit the full article, but there is a limit to what they let you post. I trimmed it 5 times until I got down to this length. I took off all of the references, several ending paragraphs and a couple out of the middle.
bladefixation2
Gold Member
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2004
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The main thing to realise when losing weight is quite how little food you actually need to eat. About a year ago I decided to lose weight, I was up at about 15 stone when ideally I should be 12 - 13. Because I work behind a desk I actually hardly need to eat anything at all because I burn hardly anything. I dont take sugar in my coffee anyway, but while it would be a start to cut the sugar out I dont think it would be enough to make a major impact. When I was losing weight I was typically eating no breakfast, a single low calorie (ie ~250 calorie) sandwich for lunch and a medium size bowl of pasta with tomato sauce and a small amount of grated cheese for evening meal. Some days I would eat a single choclate bar too (250 cals) it still took me 4 or 5 months to shift that weight. Eventually I got so fed up of eating so little that I bought an execise bike, now I exercise for an hour 4 or 5 times a week so I can eat a reasonable amount of food. In my experience a combination of food reduction and exercise is key. If you try to do it based on food/ calorie reducion alone its easy to get fed up of eating so little you just give up, or alternatively you dont realise how little you can actually eat when doing no exercise that you still eat too much and are disapointed when you dont lose weight.
Personally I eat as little artificial sweeteners as possible because I am concerned about their effects on the body. ie cancer.
cockroachfarm, I have a similar willpower problem as you, tI got an exercise bike in my house so rain wasnt en excuse, neither was to little time, because it takes so little time to use
Personally I eat as little artificial sweeteners as possible because I am concerned about their effects on the body. ie cancer.
cockroachfarm, I have a similar willpower problem as you, tI got an exercise bike in my house so rain wasnt en excuse, neither was to little time, because it takes so little time to use
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- Apr 9, 2004
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Holger, why don't you check out one of the treadmills that have been so popular? There are some that are super smart and seeing my own father use one every day after being a lung cancer survivor he has built up more muscle tone, dropped the fat, paces at a good light speed and is actually in better shape than my mother. Walking makes you feel good too. I backfired on my diet and have orange slices hidden in the dryer that will never work again
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- Oct 2, 2000
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- 1,496
I went to the doctor about a mont ago with weakness and dizziness and constantly being hungry. Turned out my sugar was screwed up,,low. I figured he was gonna tell me I was diabetic or somethin' but suggested I try a diet high in Complex Carbs and little to no sugar. I've lost about 21 lbs in 30 days or so and feel really good. No cokes, no candy, sugar free cookies.
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- Jan 6, 2001
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notdos said:....suggested I try a diet high in Complex Carbs and little to no sugar. I've lost about 21 lbs in 30 days or so and feel really good. No cokes, no candy, sugar free cookies.
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Sounds interesting. Can you be more specific about the kinds of foods you are eating now?