A recently published study showed that eating peanuts, even in small quantities, reduces the risk of death from cardiovascular diseases, which supports the results of previous studies conducted on the same topic.
This study, the results of which were published in the American Journal of the American Medical Association – Internal Medicine, indicated that eating this type of food is associated with a decrease in the overall risk of death by a rate ranging between 17 and 21%, depending on the quantities consumed, and a decrease between 23 and 38% in the risk. Deaths from cardiovascular diseases.
This study was conducted on more than 70,000 Americans, in addition to 130,000 Chinese in Shanghai.
The majority of participants belong to modest economic and social groups.
Hong Lu, an epidemiologist at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and the main supervisor of this study, said: “We did not notice in our study that eating peanuts was associated with a decrease in the overall risk of deaths resulting, especially from cardiovascular diseases, in the American population, as well as in Chinese people of both sexes.” In Shanghai.
An economical way to improve heart health
Given that peanuts are much cheaper and more available compared to nuts, encouraging increased consumption could be an economical way to improve cardiovascular health in the general population, according to the study supervisor.
William Plaut of the Cancer Research Center at Vanderbilt University and co-supervisor of the study also said, “These data come from epidemiological studies and not from controlled clinical trials. From this standpoint, we cannot be sure that peanut consumption in itself led to a reduction in deaths.” But he pointed out that “the results support previous research that concluded that there are encouraging health benefits of peanuts.”
The benefits of peanuts were observed for people of both sexes and all groups, according to researchers who followed the study participants for periods ranging from 5 years to more than 12 years.
The main purpose of this study is to show that eating small amounts of peanuts, such as 30 grams per week, has positive effects in protecting against cardiovascular diseases.
It is noteworthy that peanuts are rich in nutrients and contain unsaturated fatty acids, fiber, vitamins and antioxidants, all of which are beneficial for the health of the heart and blood vessels.
According to Professor Peter Weissberg, Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation, “The results of this research lead us to believe that a modest increase in the amount of peanuts on a balanced diet is good” on the health front.
