More research suggests tree nut consumption reduces risk for CVD

Key takeaways:

• Tree nut consumers had lower BMI, waist circumference and apolipoprotein B vs. nonconsumers.
• Researchers encouraged health professionals to recommend incorporating tree nuts into patients’ diets.

Tree nuts, despite being consumed by a relatively small percentage of Americans, were linked to a decreased risk for CVD and cardiometabolic risk factors, a study in Current Developments in Nutrition showed.

Stephanie M. Lopez-Neyman, MS, MPH, RD, LD, a PhD candidate in the department of nutrition sciences at Texas Woman’s University, and colleagues noted that nut consumption has been linked to several improvements in CVD risk markers and mortality.

Despite this evidence, “there are no recent estimates examining the U.S. population-level intake of tree nuts and their association with CVD and [cardiometabolic] risk factors, as well as health outcomes, with the most current [National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)] data,” they wrote.

So, the researchers evaluated 2011 to 2018 NHANES data to assess the association between tree nut consumption and several risk factors and health outcomes like obesity, BMI and apolipoprotein B (ApoB), with the latter “considered a more accurate cardiovascular risk marker than low-density lipoprotein cholesterol.”

Of the 18,150 adults included in the study, just 8% consumed tree nuts. Consumers tended to be women, middle-aged and older adults and have a higher income than nonconsumers.

The researchers found that, compared with nonconsumers, tree nut consumers were less likely to have:

• obesity (31% vs. 40%);
• abdominal obesity (54% vs. 60%); and
• low HDL cholesterol (22% vs. 30%).

Compared with nonconsumers, tree nut consumers also had lower mean:

• waist circumference (P <.001);
• BMI (P < .001);
• systolic BP (P = .009);
• HbA1c (P = .024); and
• ApoB (P = .004).

Lopez-Neyman and colleagues said the associations were consistent with prior research — “albeit to a lesser extent than previously reported.”

They also suggested health professionals “should advocate for the inclusion of tree nuts as part of an overall healthy dietary pattern through diet counseling and nutrition education programs.”

“However, it is vital that health professionals are mindful of their clientele’s cultural eating patterns to mitigate challenges to the inclusion of nuts in their clientele’s daily diet,” they wrote. “Yet incorporating tree nuts into the diet may be faced with additional barriers such as affordability and palatability, and allergies.”

The researchers also mentioned that future research should examine the association between tree nut intake and health outcomes across races and ethnicities.