X-Message-Number: 10687 From: "Olaf Henny" <> Subject: Re: CryoNet #10654; Nuts Date: Mon, 2 Nov 1998 21:17:58 -0800 In Message #10654 on Oct 29 Doug Skrecky forwarded the following message: >Subject: dietary treatment to avoid a fatal heart attack > > A funny thing happened during the Adventist Health Study relating diet >to mortality, in a group with one seventh the heart attack risk of the >general population, and who already live 7 years longer. The big finding >was the largely unsuspected health benefits of nuts. Here's some data from >(Arch Intern Med 152: 1416-1424 1992). > > Relative Risk >Food Item frequency of Fatal CHD >nuts <1/wk 1 > 1-4/wk 0.77 > >4/wk 0.67 > >legumes ... (snip) > This nut/longevity relation was later found to hold even in old age. >Here's some data from those over 84 years of age. (Arch Intern Med 157: >2249-2258 1997) > >nuts <1/wk 1 > 1-4/wk 0.71 > >4/wk 0.55 > > I've looked at the data comparing the effects on lipids of various types >of nuts. The best results seem to be with almond ingestion, which results >in a better HDL/LDL ratio than with olive oil. (J Am Col Nutr 17(3): >285-290 1998) It's probably a good idea to consume some nuts on a regular >basis - particularly almonds. I have heard similar assertions made with respect to a diet containing nuts previously from several different sources. Unfortunately none of them made any reference to the amount of nuts consumed. Clearly a peanut/day would meet and even exceed the frequency requirement/week, but would surely not lead to any measurable benefit. Many of us eat from time to time buns covered with sunflower, sesame and flax seeds and thereby ingest small amounts of "nuts", but are these amounts enough to count? I eat most days at least a handful of mixed nuts and also use them for cooking. This brings me to a couple of my standard recipes: Most of us love the taste of bacon/ham and eggs, but don't consider it exactly "good for us and consequently avoid it. Well here is my tasty ersatz (it may be a little rich in cals, so you CRadherents will have to close your eyes, while you read this : :) In a 8" none-stick pan I toss about 1 tbsp sunflower seeds (bought pre-roasted from the supermarket) and about half as much each of split almonds and flax seeds. I roast these in medium heat until the split almonds turn a pale golden on the edges (if you roast them too long the flax seeds start 'hopping" out of the pan like flees :). Then I crack an egg over the whole thing, and put my breakfast plate upside-down as a lid over the pan. When the egg is done, I can serve it on a nice warm plate, so it will be good and warm to the last bite. Rice: The healthiest way to eat it is probably the East Asian way: The sticky stuff clomped together. But this does not swallow very easily. In the Middle East the like to slather butter al over it, - and there goes the heart. Similarly in some European countries they add gravy, which also usually contains quite a bit of fat. The method I have found to make rice very palatable at very low nutritional cost is to add a few split almonds in the water, before I heat it up and dice dried pineapple and add it about 5 - 10 minutes before the rice is done. I use about 1/3rd slice of pineapple per serving. Nice with skinless and boneless chicken breast and peas. I have also tried dried apricots, but my wife and I prefer pineapple. Best, Olaf > >---------------------------------------------------------------------- > >End of CryoNet Digest >********************* > > Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=10687