Eating Nuts IS good for you!

It‘s not often that a simple, doable thing comes along that’s also incredibly good for you, but I think this is it: eat a half a handful of nuts every day.

According to a new study out of the Netherlands, just 10 grams (about a third of an ounce) of nuts or peanuts (technically a legume) a day leads to a lower risk of death from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative disease, diabetes and cancer. There was no benefit to eating peanut butter.

And the risk reduction isn’t small. The BBC reported that there was a 23 percent lower chance of death during the 10-year study.

In the University of Maastricht study, 120,000 Dutch men and women 55 to 69 years old answered a health and lifestyle questionaire in 1986. Ten years later, their mortality rate was studied and revealed that those who ate nuts had the 23 percent lower chance of dying.

For specific diseases, the rate was higher: 45 percent for neurodegenerative disease, 39 percent for respiratory disease and 30 percent for diabetes, the BBC said.

Study leader Piet van den Brandt told the BBC: “It was remarkable that substantially lower mortality was already observed at consumption levels of 15g of nuts or peanuts on average per day.”

Why is this? Nuts contain monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids, various vitamins, fiber, antioxidants and other compounds that might fight disease, van den Brandt said.

The findings were published in the International Journal of Epidemiology.

Almonds image via Shutterstock.

Read more at Discovery News.