You may have noticed that nuts have been recently featured in countless news articles touting them as today’s health promoters. Unassuming staples of native diets for centuries, nuts are at last standing tall as the spotlight shines new information about their healthful attributes. Study after study during last fifteen years has turned up exciting and sometimes even unexpected beneficial results when nuts were included in the diet.

Studies have revealed that it only takes a handful of nuts a day for the mostly monounsaturated fats to begin lowering total cholesterol and especially the LDL cholesterol, often referred to as bad cholesterol. That handful of nuts, about one and one-half ounces, lowers the risk of heart attack and diabetes when nuts serve as the primary source of fat in the diet.

It seems surprising that such a meager amount could produce such amazing results naturally. But researchers conducting large studies such as the Nurses Health Study, the Iowa Women’s Study, and the Adventist Health Study consistently found that those who ate between one and three ounces of nuts several times a week could lower their total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol without lowering the HDL, or good cholesterol.

Another study revealed the ability of nuts to lower the risk for gallstones. By lowering total cholesterol, nuts assist the body in controlling how much LDL cholesterol enters the gallbladder. The less cholesterol that enters the gall bladder, the lower the risk the cholesterol will crystallize into gallstones.

The nuts tested in the studies included the familiar varieties of tree nuts: almonds, pistachios, cashews, pecans, hazelnuts, walnuts, and macadamias. The nuts, however, were not roasted in oil and salted. Instead, raw, unsalted nuts were the researchers’ focus. Rely on these nutritious nuts to replace a good portion of the fats in your diet, and reap the benefit of lowering your cholesterol and risk of heart attack.

Peanuts and peanut butter were also included in some of the studies. Though peanuts are actually in the legume family, they have been shown to produce similar health benefits as the tree nuts. Their primary benefit comes from their high levels of resveratrol, the same antioxidant in red wine. In fact, two ounces of peanuts contain as much resveratrol as one ounce of red wine. Many doctors recommend a glass of red wine a day for their heart patients because the antioxidants in the wine may help to reduce arterial inflammation that could possibly trigger a heart attack.

Unexpected weight loss of subjects in one of the studies proved quite surprising to the researchers. Although the subjects were consuming nuts several times a week, they did not seem to gain weight. Rather some were actually able to lose a few pounds. Researchers learned that the small amount of nuts allotted during the study was so satisfying to the participants they craved fewer of their usual high-fat snacks like potato chips.

So what is it about nuts that makes them so satisfying? It’s their impressive nutrient density. Nuts are high in protein, fiber, and minerals, and contain an average of 40 per cent of the health-promoting monounsaturated fat.