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Nuts and your heart: Eating nuts for heart health
Eating nuts helps your heart. Discover how walnuts, almonds and other nuts help lower your cholesterol when eaten as part of a balanced diet.
By Mayo Clinic staffEating nuts as part of a healthy diet can be good for your heart. Nuts, which contain unsaturated fatty acids and other nutrients, are a great snack food, too. They're inexpensive, easy to store and easy to take with you to work or school.
The type of nut you eat isn't that important, although some nuts have more heart-healthy nutrients and fats than do others. Walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, you name it, almost every type of nut has a lot of nutrition packed into a tiny package. If you have heart disease, eating nuts instead of a less healthy snack can help you more easily follow a heart-healthy diet.
Can eating nuts help your heart?
Most studies on people who eat nuts as part of a heart-healthy diet have found that nuts lower the LDL, low-density lipoprotein or "bad," cholesterol level in the blood. High LDL is one of the primary causes of heart disease, so nuts' ability to lower LDL cholesterol seems to be quite beneficial.
Eating nuts reduces your risk of developing blood clots that can cause a fatal heart attack. Nuts also improve the health of the lining of your arteries. The evidence for the heart-health benefits of nuts isn't rock solid yet — the Food and Drug Administration only allows food companies to say evidence "suggests but does not prove" that eating nuts reduces heart disease risk.
What's in nuts that's thought to be heart healthy?
Although it varies by nut, researchers think most nuts contain at least some of these heart-healthy substances:
- Unsaturated fats. It's not entirely clear why, but it's thought that the "good" fats in nuts — both monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats — lower bad cholesterol levels.
- Omega-3 fatty acids. Many nuts are also rich in omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3s are a healthy form of fatty acids that seem to help your heart by, among other things, preventing dangerous heart rhythms that can lead to heart attacks. Omega-3 fatty acids are also found in many fish, but nuts are one of the best plant-based sources of omega-3 fatty acids.
- L-arginine. Nuts also have lots of l-arginine, which is a substance that may help improve the health of your artery walls by making them more flexible and less prone to blood clots that can block blood flow.
- Fiber. All nuts contain fiber, which helps lower your cholesterol. Fiber also makes you feel full, so you'll eat less later. Fiber is also thought to play a role in preventing diabetes.
- Vitamin E. Researchers still aren't sure, but it's thought that vitamin E may help stop the development of plaques in your arteries which can narrow them, leading to chest pain, coronary artery disease or a heart attack.
- Plant sterols. Some nuts contain plant sterols, a substance that can help lower your cholesterol. Plant sterols are often added to products like margarine and orange juice for additional health benefits, but sterols occur naturally in nuts.
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- Qualified health claims: Letter of enforcement discretion - Nuts and coronary heart disease. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/qhcnuts2.html. Accessed Jan. 12, 2009.
- Djousse L, et al. Nut consumption and risk of hypertension in US male physicians. Clinical Nutrition. In press. Accessed Jan. 12, 2009.
- Djousse L, et al. Nut consumption and risk of heart failure in the physicians' health study. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2008;88:930.
- King JC, et al. Tree nuts and peanuts as components of a healthy diet. Journal of Nutrition. 2008;138:1736S.
- Almonds, raw. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference. http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search. Accessed Jan. 12, 2009.
- Almonds, dry roasted, without salt added. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference. http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search. Accessed Jan. 12, 2009.
- Brazil nuts, dried, unblanched. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference. http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search. Accessed Jan. 12, 2009.
- Cashew nuts, dry roasted, without salt added. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference. http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search. Accessed Jan. 12, 2009.
- Chestnuts, European, roasted, without salt added. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference. http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search. Accessed Jan. 12, 2009.
- Hazelnuts or filberts, raw. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference. http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search. Accessed Jan. 12, 2009.
- Hazelnuts or filberts, dry roasted, without salt added. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference. http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search. Accessed Jan. 12, 2009.
- Macadamia nuts, dry roasted, without salt added. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference. http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search. Accessed Jan. 12, 2009.
- Macadamia nuts, raw. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference. http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search. Accessed Jan. 12, 2009.
- Pecans, dry roasted, without salt added. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference. http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search. Accessed Jan. 12, 2009.
- Pistachio nuts, dry roasted, without salt added. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference. http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search. Accessed Jan. 12, 2009.
- Walnuts, English. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference. http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search. Accessed Jan. 12, 2009.
- Vegetable oil, coconut. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference. http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search. Accessed Jan. 16, 2009.
- Peanuts, all types, dry roasted without salt. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference. http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search. Accessed Jan. 25, 2009.
- Frequently asked questions: USDA nutrient database. United States Department of Agriculture. http://www.ars.usda.gov/Main/docs.htm?docid=6233. Accessed Jan. 26, 2009.
- A food labeling guide, XII. Appendix D: Qualified health claims. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/2lg-xd.html. Accessed May 21, 2009.
