Brazilian researchers wanted to see if a small handful of Brazil and cashew nuts helps reduce body fat. Plus, tamp down inflammation. And whether they are worth the calories or not.
Forty women were put on a lower-calorie diet. Some with and some without nuts.
After 8 weeks, what happened?
The women who augmented their diet with Brazil and cashew nuts lost more total body fat and preserved lean muscle mass statistically beyond the women who didn’t (the control group).
Plus:
- Women who added nuts to their diet had statistically reduced endothelial inflammation (red blood cells that line all blood vessels), especially in cardiometabolically at-risk women.
- Plasma selenium blood levels increased. This is a good thing as long as selenium doesn’t go too high. You want to run RBC selenium once a year in yearly labs. This is a good idea for most mineral assessments.
Kidneys “drive” the heart.
- In animal models, just an equivalent of a half handful of nuts even protected kidney function from inflammation.
- Nuts are high in fats. Good fats. Fats that tamp down inflammation. Inside red blood cells. And inside kidney cells.
Conclusion: Nuts help you lose weight (if you don’t overeat them). And they taste great!
What Can You Do With Nuts?
You can make your own nut milk.
Get a nut milk bag at Whole Foods. Blend nuts and water in a VitaMix and then put through a nut milk bag. Add a tad of monk fruit or stevia or consume without a sweetener.
You can saute’ nuts with veggies and or chicken. Put them in salads.
One of my fav is sauteed pinon nuts inside greens. Yum.
I love to use seeds like pumpkin and/or nuts, inside many of my salads or veggie dishes.
Don’t get anxious about seeds, btw, just cause some are dissing seed oils.
To get seed and nutty benefits, you don’t need a lot. 1/4 to 1/2 an average handful of nuts, or a teaspoon to a tablespoon of seeds, offer great health benefits. Plus, add flavor!
Cashews are especially tasty with shrimp or calamari dishes. I add a dash of monk fruit and red chili peppers to make it sweet/spicy.
I keep my nuts in glass jars in the fridge, so the visual is a reminder when opening the fridge to actually use them. Often, if I do not see something, it’s easy to forget about using it.
One evening, I made a mixture of brown jasmine organic rice (rinsed for 2 minutes in a colander to remove some organic arsenic) and sauteed with a handful of pecans and cashews and caramelized onions.
We worry about inflammation.
Get nutty about your thinking – as nuts help keep inflammation at bay.
Nuts even tamp down markers of colorectal cancer vulnerability. Examples are rectal DNA methyltransferase and NF-κB mRNA.
This means a partial handful of nuts a day keeps the gut wall “less” inflamed. Reducing the risk of gut diseases, like cancer. Calming IBS.
Some inflamed guts, like those with IBS or SIBO, might be “sensitive” to nuts with “sweetness” such as cashews. So there are always individual caveats.
The best medicine is personalized medicine.
Knowledge is power,
Dr. B.
References:
Brazil and cashew nuts intake improve body composition and endothelial health in women at cardiometabolic risk (Brazilian Nuts Study): a randomized controlled trial. Br J Nutr. 2022 Feb 23:1-38
Inflammation and kidney injury attenuated by prior intake of Brazil nuts in the process of ischemia and reperfusion. J Bras Nefrol. 2018 Oct-Dec;40(4):312-318
Supplementation with Brazil nuts and green tea extract regulates targeted biomarkers related to colorectal cancer risk in humans. Br J Nutr. 2016 Dec;116(11):1901-1911.