If you eat walnuts just two or three times a week, you can reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes by almost a quarter. This is according to new US research which found that women who consumed a 28 gram packet of walnuts at least twice a week were 24% less likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those who rarely or never ate them. It has already been shown that these nuts can help you to reduce your levels of inflammation in your body. This is because walnuts are rich in healthy fatty acids, and so regularly snacking on them can also prevent and protect against other diseases such as cancer, heart disease and arthritis.
Published in the Journal of Nutrition, this study from scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston is not the first to highlight that eating walnuts can help you guard your wellbeing against diabetes. However, with nearly 140,000 female nurses participating in the research, this study is thought to be one of the largest studies to find that regularly snacking on walnuts can help prevent the condition.
Diabetes UK reports that the number of people affected by type 2 diabetes in the UK is set to double in the next two decades. As it stands, there are 2.5 million diabetics in the UK, but this will rise to four million by 2025 and five million by 2030. Being overweight, physically inactive and having a poor diet are major risk factors of the disease, which, if left untreated, can increase your risk of other wellness problems such as heart attacks, blindness and amputation.
Over a ten-year period, the researchers tracked 137,893 nurses aged from 35 to see how many developed type 2 diabetes. The investigators closely monitored participants’ dietary habits and, after allowing for body fat and weight, discovered that eating walnuts one to three times a month curbed the risk by 4%, once a week by 13% and at least twice a week by 24%. The researchers noted, ‘These results suggest higher walnut consumption is associated with a significantly lower risk of type 2 diabetes in women.’ However, it’s likely that the same benefits apply to men.
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