Heart Healthy Benefits Of Nuts & Olive Oil
Nuts and olive oil, which are sources of healthy fats have been shown to promote heart health.
As noted by Dr. Michael Greger, MD, a number of studies in which subjects added nuts to their diet, without replacing specific foods, which might skew results one way or another, found that nuts significantly improved arterial health.
Some studies show mixed results in terms of the level of benefit, there is no evidence that nuts might actually worsen health, that provided you are not allergic.
According to Dr. Greger: “Eating at least 1 serving of walnuts per week may drop the chances of a cardiovascular-related death by 50%. However, walnut consumption may only drop our cholesterol levels about 5%. How could we get a 50% drop in cardiac mortality from just a 5% drop in cholesterol?
Walnuts must have some other heart-protecting benefits besides lowering cholesterol.
The ability of blood vessels to relax and open normally is considered an excellent barometer of underlying vascular health…”
The Big Q: So what effect do nuts have?
The Big A: A Y 2011 review in the journal Nutrition, Metabolism, and Cardiovascular Diseasesfound five clinical trials analyzing the effect of nut consumption on arterial function, and all three studies on walnuts showed an improvement in endothelial function measured in the arm.
Other recent research confirms the health benefits of EVO (extra virgin olive oil), showing it improves blood sugar and cholesterol after meals to a greater degree than corn oil.
As reported by Reuters: “Lowering (post-meal) blood glucose and cholesterol may be useful to reduce the negative effects of glucose and cholesterol on the cardiovascular system,’ lead study author Francesco Violi, a researcher at Sapienza University in Rome, said.
On 2 separate occasions, researchers gave healthy people a typical Mediterranean lunch. For one meal, they added 10 grams (about 2 teaspoons) of EVO, and for the other, they added 10 g of corn oil.
Blood tests done before and 2 hours after the meals found that blood sugar rose after eating in all the participants, which is normal. But blood sugar rose much less after a meal with EVO compared to one with corn oil. That is in line with previous research linking EVO to elevated levels of insulin, a hormone that helps convert glucose into energy, Mr. Violi said.”
So, focusing your diet on real food (raw whole, ideally Organic, and meat from pasture raised cattle) rather than processed fare is one of the easiest ways to sidestep dietary pitfalls like harmful fats, not to mention other harmful ingredients like refined sugars, GMOs (genetically modified organisms) and additives that have never been properly tested for safety. Beyond that, it is just a matter of adjusting the ratios of fat, carbs and protein to suit your individual situation.
One Key though is to trade refined sugar and processed fructose for healthy fat, as this will help optimize your insulin and leptin levels. We have spent decades trading healthy saturated fats for carbs and trans fats, and there can be no doubt that this has had an enormous influence on disease statistics, raising incidence of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s, all the top Killers.
Healthy fat is particularly important for optimal brain function and memory.
This is true throughout life, but especially during childhood. So, if processed food makes up the bulk of your meals, you would be wise to reconsider your eating habits.
Not only are processed foods the primary culprit in obesity and insulin resistance, processed foods can also affect the IQ of young children. One British study revealed that kids who ate a predominantly processed food diet at 3 anni had lower IQ scores at age 8. For each measured increase in processed foods, participants had a 1.67-pt decrease in IQ.
Another study published in the journal Clinical Pediatrics also warns that frequent fast food consumption may stunt your child’s academic performance. Stop feeding your children processed foods and that includes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches…they are worse than McDonald’s hamburgers.
Eat healthy, Be healthy, Live lively.
HeffX-LTN
Paul Ebeling
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