Walnut and cholesterol
Walnuts seeds are a very dense source of nutrition and renowned for its fatty acid content,
the English walnut or a hybrid from the English walnut is currently the most commonly grown walnut for commercial use but despite its name this walnut actually originated from Persia not England.
Currently china is by far the largest producer of Walnut seeds but The united States are its largest exporter most of which are grown in California.
The walnut is a great nut to eat due to its nutritional values and potential health benefits, walnuts are largely composed of polyunsaturated fatty acids unlike most other nuts and contains a big amount of ALA (omega3).
Some of the benefits of Walnuts include:
Improves the body use of fat over carbohydrates as fuel in overweight adults.
Walnuts improves sperm quality in young and healthy men.
Contain the highest amount of anti-oxidants of any nuts
Potential to lower blood cholesterol levels
Good for the heart
Good for HDL cholesterol
Improved sleep
Reduced LDL cholesterol
Reduce the change at diabetes
Possible protection against Alzheimer, breast cancer and prostate cancer
Considered to be by many as the king of the nuts, there are several kinds of walnuts, the most commonly used English walnut or hybrids from the English walnut but you also have the black walnut
The black walnut originally from north America is a nut that has significant different nutritional values as the regular English walnut for example the omega 3 content of black walnuts are significantly lower than the English walnuts while containing more arginine and selenium. Both are very effective at reducing cholesterol levels but the English walnuts tend to be cheaper to buy.
Interesting note : Walnuts has been known by the Romans to be a sex medicine, enhancing the desire and fertility.
Here are a few studies worth showing concerning its effect on cholesterol.
Including walnuts in a low fat/modified-fat diet improved HDL cholesterol in patients that have type 2 diabetes, you can find the link here.
This study has been performed with 3different groups each with a diet containing 30%. Only 1 group included walnuts in its low fat diet the other 2 has the same amount of fat in the diet but did not include walnuts
They were measured 3 months in and 6months in and the blood work showed significant increase in HDL cholesterol to total cholesterol ratio and HDL cholesterol increased in the walnut group compared to the other 2 groups, they also noticed a 10% drop in LDL cholesterol in the walnut group.
Second study can be found here.
A diet rich in walnuts favorably influences plasma fatty acid profile in moderately hyperlimidaemic subjects (high cholesterol patients).
This study was set with 21 men with high total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol.
Where set to consume 2 diets each one lasting a four weeks period, one rich in walnuts and one without. All subjects had to do both four week diets.
Despite a higher intake of fatty acids in the walnut diet, the participants showed a remarkable improvement in both total cholesterol levels and LDL cholesterol both where lowered after the diet but the walnut diet had a greater effect , the same was true for HDL cholesterol which when up but more with the walnut diet then the other diet when comparing both diets the Apo B was significant lower on the walnut diet.
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