Nutrition and Walnut

1002walnut Adding walnuts to your diet can be an important step in improving your cardiovascular health. The main claim to fame for this delicious nut is their omega-3 fatty acids, which help fight heart disease. Eating a handful of walnuts about five times a week will reduce your chances of getting a heart attack between fifteen and fifty percent. It makes sense that nuts and seeds are rich sources of a wide variety of nutrients, because they are, after all, nature’s nurseries. A nut or seed is basically a storage device that contains all the highly concentrated proteins, calories, and nutrients that a plant embryo will require to flourish. The walnut’s concentration of omega-3s has many potential health benefits ranging from cardiovascular protection, to the promotion of better cognitive function, to anti-inflammatory benefits helpful in asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, and inflammatory skin diseases such as eczema and psoriasis. In addition, walnuts contain an antioxidant compound called ellagic acid that supports the immune system and appears to have several anticancer properties.

Walnuts are the flagship nut in the SuperFood category, and they are just plain delicious.
Walnuts contain lots of antioxidants, and plant sterols, which lower cholesterol.
Besides the reduction of coronary heart disease, walnuts also reduce the risk of diabetes, cancer, and a host of other chronic ailments.
They are one of the few rich sources of plant-derived omega-3 fatty acids along with canola oil, ground flaxseed and flaxseed oil, soybeans and soybean oil, wheat germ, spinach, and purslane.
Omega-3s benefit the cardiovascular system by helping to prevent erratic heart rhythms, making blood less likely to clot inside arteries, and improving the ratio of good cholesterol to potentially harmful cholesterol.
Alpha linolenic acid, the omega-3 fat found in walnuts, promotes bone health.
And all this is important because more than 95% of the US population is lacking a daily amount of Omega-3 fats.
Walnuts are a good source of fiber, protein, magnesium, copper, folate, and vitamin E. They are the nut with the highest overall antioxidant activity, including at least 16 antioxidant phenols, vitamin E, and gallic acid.
Their flesh consists mainly of a blend of vegetable fats(60%), a very respectable amount of protein (24%), and carbohydrates (10%).
What’s great about walnuts is that medical studies have shown them to promote weight loss (even with a high caloric content).
Melatonin, which is involved in inducing and regulating sleep and is also a powerful antioxidant present in walnuts.
Walnuts also contain an antioxidant compound called ellagic acid, which blocks the metabolic pathways that can lead to cancer. Ellagic acid not only helps protect healthy cells from free radical damage, but also helps detoxify potential cancer-causing substances and helps prevent cancer cells from replicating.
5-10 Walnuts a day is all it takes to regain a big slice of your health back.