Scimex: Eating nuts is associated with reduced risk of death from cardiovascular
disease, according to a study by US and Chinese scientists which looked
at the health of 71,764 low-income black and white men and women in the
US and 134,265 Chinese men and women. The researchers report that
eating nuts and peanuts reduced the risk of death by cardiovascular
disease across different ethnicities, and suggest that peanuts may be a
cost-effective measure to improve cardiovascular health worldwide.
Eating nuts and peanuts was associated with a reduced risk of overall
death and death from cardiovascular disease across different ethnic
groups and among individuals with low socioeconomic status, which
suggests that peanuts, because of their affordability, may be a
cost-effective measure to improve cardiovascular health, according to an
article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine.
Nuts are rich in nutrients and peanuts, although classified as legumes,
have nutrients similar to tree nuts. Peanuts are included as nuts in
many epidemiologic studies. Evidence suggests that nuts may be
beneficial with respect to coronary heart disease, according to the
study background.
Xiao-Ou Shu, M.D., Ph.D., of the Vanderbilt University School of
Medicine, Nashville, and coauthors sought to examine the association
between nut/peanut consumption and mortality.
The authors analyzed three large study groups involving 71,764
low-income black and white men and women living in the southeastern
United States and 134,265 Chinese men and women living in Shanghai,
China. Men in both the U.S. and Chinese study participant groups
consumed more peanuts than women. In the U.S. group, about 50 percent of
the nut/peanut consumption was peanuts and in the participant groups
from China only peanut consumption was assessed.
Study results indicate that nut intake was associated with reduced risk
of total mortality and cardiovascular disease (CVD) death in all three
groups. In the U.S. study participant group, there was a reduced risk of
total mortality of 21 percent for individuals who ate the most peanuts.
In the Chinese study participant groups, the risk reduction for death
associated with high nut intake was 17 percent in a combined analysis.
An association between high nut intake and reduced risk of ischemic
heart disease was seen for all the ethnic groups.
"We found consistent evidence that high nut/peanut consumption was
associated with a reduced risk of total mortality and CVD mortality.
This inverse association was observed among both men and women and
across each racial/ethnic group and was independent of metabolic
conditions, smoking, alcohol consumption and BMI. We observed no
significant associations between nut/peanut consumption and risk of
death due to cancer and diabetes mellitus. … We cannot, however, make
etiologic inferences from these observational data, especially with the
lack of a clear dose-response trend in many of the analyses.
Nevertheless,
the findings highlight a substantive public health impact of nut/peanut
consumption in lowering CVD mortality given the affordability of
peanuts to individuals from all SES (socioeconomic status) backgrounds,"
the study concludes.