Do you love a hearty fistful of peanuts, but avoid them for fear of gaining weight? Well, here’s some good news, nut-lovers: A study published in this month’s issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that women who consume nuts twice per week not only avoided gaining stomach fat, they actually had less chance of becoming overweight or obese than those who avoided nuts entirely.
Nuts can help you control your body weight. Seriously. Nuts earned a reputation as a waistline expander during the low-fat crazes of the late ’70s and ’80s. Our fixation on the notion that “fat makes you fat” — which has since been disproven, as long as the right kinds of fats are consumed in reasonable amounts — meant low-fat foods ruled the day. Since nuts have some of the highest fat content of any food found in nature, they were to be avoided, or if eaten, only in the tiniest of portions and with a healthy dose of guilt.
While nuts are, indeed, high in total fat, the vast majority of the fats are of the unsaturated variety — that’s the stuff that keeps your arteries clean and your heart healthy. But beyond their fat composition, it seems that nuts have some relatively unique properties that can actually curb weight gain.
In fact, nuts contain compounds that are natural appetite suppressants, so even though you might consume extra calories, you make up for it by naturally eating a little less later on. They also might cause a slight increase in resting metabolic rate, though that is still a point of debate. Finally, the energy contained in nuts is actually not terribly accessible by the human body, so some of the extra calories are simply not used. Whatever the reason, the bottom line is that nuts are not to blame when it comes to most people’s battle of the bulge.
The bottom line: Yes, nuts are theoretically “fattening” — they are high in fat and calories. But as long as you don’t turn your affection for a handful of nuts into a daily bucket, you can enjoy them as part of your regular diet.
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