Munching on walnuts makes your microbiome think you just popped some expensive probiotics!
We knew walnuts were a super food, but wow!
9 Ways Walnuts are Healthy
- Walnuts are high in healthy fat.
- Walnuts are the highest food in melatonin; it gets into your bloodstream.
- Walnuts are high in gut wall healing compounds.
- Walnuts are high in antioxidants.
- Eating walnuts boosts healthy gut flora, as if you were consuming probiotics, so it’s like an enjoyable “food probiotic.”
- Walnuts are healthy for your brain.
- Walnuts are healthy for your heart.
- Walnuts are healthy for your breasts.
- And now, walnuts are healthy for your microbiome.
Researchers from the LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine found that walnuts in the diet change the makeup of bacteria in the gut in a super healthy way. You could say walnuts are a superfood. They should come dressed in little superwoman outfits!
In a rodent study, rats fed walnuts had increases in beneficial bacteria in their microbiome, like Lactobacillus, without actually taking in Lactobacillus bacteria.
Walnuts increased the diversity of bacteria in the gut. A more diverse microbiome is a healthier microbiome. It helps you stay thinner and decreases your risk of various diseases, like inflammatory bowel disease and even depression.
It may be that the super plant compounds in walnuts act as a super prebiotic to help your own gut proliferate its own health bacteria. In other words, walnuts may help your good bacteria grow. That’s what prebiotics do. They are dietary substances that selectively promote the numbers and activity of beneficial bacteria.
Berkson’s Walnut Cocoa Gut Healing Paste Recipe
1 cup of raw walnuts
3 heaping tablespoons of sugar-free, dairy-free chocolate or cocoa powder (or as much as tastes good to you)
enough vanilla milk alternative, i.e., almond, soy, rice, or coconut milk, to blend
1-2 droppers full of liquid stevia
blend well
It has such a lovely flavor! Eat this instead of expensive bars or sugar-free chocolate!
1 TB of this before bed helps promote a deeper restorative sleep and heals your gut wall while you sleep.
Walnut Paté recipe:
In a Vita Mix put:
1 stalk of celery (leave leaves on if they weren’t amputated at the grocery store)
½ to one carrot
1 ½ cups of organic raw walnuts
if you like onions – 1/3 sweet or yellow onion (onions are one of the highest anti-inflammatory foods and I love them so much I also add 1 Tbsp. of dehydrated onions)
2 Tbsp. of gluten-free soy sauce
2 small cloves of garlic and/or 1 Tsp. of raw garlic granules
juice of one to two limes
sea salt
1 heaping tsp. of organic dried parsley flakes (these are especially high in the flavonoid apigenin that turns back on the killing machine deep inside supposedly immortal cancer cells).
Add enough olive oil to blend to the consistency that tastes good to you. The celery and onions give a lot of moisture to help the blending. I like this chunkier and some like it smoother. Fresher veggies have more water in them.
More Options: For more zing: Add 1 tsp. of smoked paprika and 1/2 tsp. of cayenne pepper. Adding some turmeric is good as that helps reduce polyp growth.
Often I add even more dehydrated onion flakes.
Creamier yet.
- Non-dairy cheese addition: Sometimes I add a chunk of the non-dairy Daiya wedge (only wedge, not purchased as grated or in slices as this cheese in these forms do not taste anywhere near as good). Adding this to the mix makes a chunky cheese-y very cool flavor and creamy texture.
- You can add a few Tbsp. of water. That makes it too creamy for me but some folks adore it.
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The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, 2017; Changes in the Gut Microbial Communities Following Addition of Walnuts to the Diet.
Cancer Prev Res (Phila). 2016 May 23. pii: canprevres.0026.2016. Effects of walnut consumption on colon carcinogenesis and microbial community structure.
Nutrition. 2015 Apr;31(4):570-7. doi: 10.1016/j.nut.2014.06.001. Synergistic anti-tumor effects of melatonin and PUFAs from walnuts in a murine mammary adenocarcinoma model.