The Many Health Benefits of Walnuts

(PCM) Put down the potato chips! When it comes to healthy snacking, nuts are the way to go. Just eating 1 ounce of nuts daily (instead of an equal amount of calories from saturated fat) decreases your risk of heart disease 45 percent!

One ounce of nuts isn’t a lot, so don’t get too carried away or you’re looking at hundreds of extra calories and more fat than you need in a day. But stick to one ounce – about 13 to 21 walnut halves a day – for a supercharged, heart-healthy dose of omega-3 fatty acids, and even less belly fat. In addition to heart disease, studies have shown that omega-3 fatty acids can have lower the risk of other degenerative illnesses like hypertension, rheumatoid arthritis, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, cancer and more.

Omega-3 fatty acids are highly concentrated in the brain, so they’ve been found to be important for cognitive (brain memory and performance) and behavioral function. Think it’s a coincident that walnuts look like the human brain?

If you’re not getting enough of this healthy fat in your diet, you might suffer from fatigue, poor memory, dry skin, heart problems, mood swings or depression, and poor circulation. Start adding an ounce of walnuts a day – whether you sprinkle them on top of cereal in the morning, add them to baked goods, or just eat them as a snack. Allergic to nuts, or just don’t like the taste of walnuts? Other good sources of omega-3 fatty acids include seafood (anchovies, herring, mackerel, oysters, wild salmon), flaxseed, hempseed oil, canola oil, eggs, and pumpkin seeds.

More:
The Top 5 Nuts You Should Be Eating

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