Add almonds to diet to reduce cholesterol, excess body weight

CHENNAI: The challenges of excess body weight and diabetes are seen around the world, and the two conditions often go hand in hand. However, the addition of almonds to the diet may make a profound difference to improve health, a recent study finds.

Nutritionists associated with the study say that cutting down on carbohydrates and replacing the food intake with almonds resulted in significant reductions in body weight, body mass index (BMI), and waist circumference over the study period and lowered their total cholesterol.

The study, led by Dr Viswanathan Mohan, president and chief of diabetes research at Madras Diabetes Research Foundation in Chennai, assessed the effects of 43 g of almonds eaten daily for 12 weeks on markers of diabetes such as insulin sensitivity, insulin resistance, and serum lipid among adults with overweight and obesity.

"Our almond consumers had improvements to both body weight and blood sugar, " said Dr Mohan.

Results from the study found that eating almonds daily reduced insulin resistance, improved pancreatic function, and helped control blood glucose levels. The group who consumed almonds achieved significant reductions in body weight, body mass index (BMI), and waist circumference over the study period and lowered their total cholesterol.

"Obesity is a health problem seen around the world, and we know obesity raises the risk of chronic diseases, like type 2 diabetes. We also know this is a complex problem, tightly interwoven with diabetes, and we think we've identified a rather simple solution. It turns out, asking people to enjoy almonds instead of other snacks can help them manage weight and reduce the burden of diabetes," says diabetologist Dr R M Anjana.

Nutritionists say that when compared to carbohydrates, healthy fats can be consumed for better weight management. "It is seen that people believe that nuts fat leads to obesity and it helps with the improvement in body weight and weight loss. The calories in almonds are not absorbed directly and it is higher in protein and fibre. This meets the requirements of the body for proteins and fibre through diet. People think nuts are associated with weight gain but the calorie intake is balanced when the right type of calorie is being undertaken," said Dr Sudha Vasudevan, Senior Scientist - Head, Department of Foods Nutrition - Dietetics Research and Senior co-author of the study.

She added the staple food in India is more carbohydrate content, but we need to cut on that and focus more on a balanced diet. We need to understand that both good and bad food has calories but we should go by the recommended dietary intake for effective weight loss.