Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS. 48 healthy adults with elevated LDL who consumed 1.5 ounces of almonds per day improved their “heart-healthy” blood profiles and decreased their abdominal fat.
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States and worldwide and continues to be a major public health problem (1, 2). Cardiovascular diseases, including heart disease and stroke, are the first and third leading causes of death for both men and women in the U.S. It accounts for 1 in 3 of all U.S. deaths and cost our healthcare system $473 billion in 2009 (3).
Diet is the “gold standard intervention” for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease (4, 5). The FDA issued a Qualified Health Claim for nuts and heart disease in 2003 (6) and both the 2010 Dietary Guidelines and the American Heart Association 2020 Dietary Goals include nuts in their recommendations for a healthy diet (7, 8). Now a new study (9) suggests that consuming 1.5 ounces of almonds per day helps produce more “heart-healthy” blood profiles while also helping decrease abdominal fat.
In the study, 48 healthy subjects (22 men, 26 women) between the ages of 35 and 60 with elevated LDL cholesterol levels (between 146 and 149 milligrams/deciliter) consumed a diet that included either 1.5 ounces of almonds or a muffin (control group) for 6 weeks. There was a two-week “washout” period and the subjects then switched diets Both diets contained nearly identical amounts of calories (2,565 calories per day in the almond group versus 2,512 calories per day in the control group). However, the almonds-containing diet was comprised of 58% carbohydrate, 15% protein, 26% fat and the control group was comprised of 51% carbohydrate, 16% protein, and 32% fat.
After six weeks of supplementation, the following results were seen between the two groups:
| What Was Measured | Almond Group | Control Group | p - value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Cholesterol (milligrams/deciliter) | 9.7% decrease (228 to 206) | 7.5% decrease (228 to 211) | 0.04 |
| LDL Cholesterol (mg/dL) | 13.5% decrease (149 to 129) | 9.4% decrease (149 to 135) | 0.01 |
| HDL Cholesterol (mg/dL) | 7.7% decrease (54.8 to 50.6) | 10.8% decrease (54.8 to 48.9) | 0.004 |
| ApoB (mg/dL) | 8.9% decrease (113 to 103) | 4.5% decrease (113 to 108) | 0.01 |
| Abdominal fat (kilograms) | 6.2% decrease (2.11 to 1.98) | 2.9% decrease (2.11 to 2.05) | 0.02 |
For the researchers, “daily consumption of almonds (1.5 oz.), substituted for a high-carbohydrate snack, may be a simple dietary strategy to prevent the onset of cardiometabolic diseases in healthy individuals.”
Source: Berryman, Claire E., et al. “Effects of daily almond consumption on cardiometabolic risk and abdominal adiposity in healthy adults with elevated LDL‐cholesterol: a randomized controlled trial.” Journal of the American Heart Association 4.1 (2015): e000993.
© 2015 The Authors. Published on behalf of the American Heart Association, Inc., by Wiley Blackwell. Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work isproperly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.
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Posted February 26, 2015.
Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Hauppauge, NY. You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at PitchingDoc@msn.com or visiting his web site at www.PitchingDoc.com
References:
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- Berryman CE. Effects of daily almond consumption on cardiometabolic risk and abdominal adiposity in healthy adults with elevated LDL-cholesterol: a randomized controlled trial. J Am Heart Assoc 2015 Jan 5;4(1):e000993. doi: 10.1161/JAHA.114.000993
