Eating A Handful Of Nuts Every Day Could Lower Your Risk Of Cancer

Eating half a handful of peanuts or nuts a day could help protect against conditions such as cancer and heart disease, researchers have revealed.

A study found men and women who eat at least 10g of nuts or peanuts per day have a lower risk of dying from several major causes of death, than people who do not consume them.

But the same health benefits were not found in eating peanut butter.

Researchers in the Netherlands said peanuts and tree nuts both contain various vitamins, fibre, antioxidants and compounds such as monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids that could possibly contribute to the lower death rates.

They said peanut butter contains salt and trans fatty acids that could inhibit the protective effects of peanuts.

The reduction in mortality was strongest for respiratory disease, neurodegenerative disease, and diabetes, followed by cancer and cardiovascular diseases in both men and women.

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The research was carried out within the Netherlands Cohort Study, which has been running since 1986 among more than 120,000 Dutch men and women between the ages of 55 and 69.

The participants' nut-eating habits were assessed by asking about the portion size and frequency of consumption of peanuts, tree nuts and peanut butter.

They found that regular nut-eaters tended to be younger, more highly educated and less hypertensive, while also more likely to drink more alcohol, eat more fruit and vegetables and take supplements.

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5 Nuts That Are Insanely Good For You

Macadamias (01 of05)

Though these nuts pack roughly 21 grams of fat per serving, most of it is the unsaturated kind—so you can nosh guilt free. Macadamias are an excellent source of two nutrients vital for healthy brain and nerve function: manganese (one serving delivers 66 percent of what you need daily) and the B vitamin thiamine (30 percent of your recommended dietary allowance).
Serving size: 10 to 12 nuts, 204 calories (credit:Getty Images)

Brazil Nuts (02 of05)

The bad news: You can't eat a lot of them. Each of these Amazonian nuts contains about 33 calories—the equivalent of nearly 10 M&M's. The good news: You needn't go overboard to reap their health benefits. Just two nuts per day for 12 weeks can increase blood levels of the mineral selenium by 64 percent. Selenium is essential for proper immune function, as it helps build germ-fighting white blood cells.
Serving size: 6 nuts, 186 calories (credit:John E. Kelly via Getty Images)

Almonds (03 of05)

Call them the skinny nuts. In a 2013 study in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, people who ate about one and a half servings of almonds with breakfast felt a 35 percent decrease in appetite an hour later. When the nuts were consumed as an afternoon snack, they quashed appetites by about two and a half times that, helping the subjects naturally eat less for the rest of the day.
Serving size: 23 nuts, 164 calories (credit:Robert Decelis Ltd via Getty Images)

Pecans (04 of05)

A small study in The Journal of Nutrition found that people who consumed about three servings of pecans experienced as much as a 33 percent drop in oxidized LDL cholesterol (the kind that causes artery-clogging plaque to form). The pecan's power may lie in its high levels of heart-protecting antioxidants.
Serving size: 9 halves, 196 calories (credit:Paul Poplis via Getty Images)

Pistachios (05 of05)

Not only are pistachios the lowest-calorie nut of the bunch, but they're also rich in healthy unsaturated fatty acids. In a new study, a group that consumed 20 percent of their daily calories from pistachios for nearly six months had lower blood sugar and cholesterol levels—two risk factors for heart disease—and trimmed their waistlines more than those who ate a wholesome but pistachio-free diet.
Serving size: 49 nuts, 159 calories (credit:Tom Grill via Getty Images)

Women who ate nuts were also often leaner, had never smoked and were less likely to report diabetes.

Epidemiologist Professor Piet van den Brandt, who led the study at Maastricht University, said the findings were "remarkable".

"A higher intake was not associated with further reduction in mortality risk," he added.

"This was also supported by a meta-analysis of previously published studies together with the Netherlands Cohort Study, in which cancer and respiratory mortality showed this same dose-response pattern."

The study is published in the International Journal of Epidemiology.

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