Good News For Nut Eaters

If snacking on nuts is your guilty pleasure, now you can feel good about your choice. People who ate a handful of nuts every day were 20 percent less likely to die from any cause over a 30-year period compared with those who didn’t consume nuts, reports a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Nut eaters had an almost 30 percent reduction in deaths from heart disease and an 11 percent decrease in the risk of dying from cancer.

The beneficial effect was similar for peanuts and tree nuts, according to researchers who looked at long-term and detailed food questionnaires from more than 100,000 adults in the United States. Previous studies have linked nut consumption to lower cholesterol levels, reduced insulin resistance and better weight control.