A study that has been done by Harvard University over the last 30 years has concluded that regular nut eaters were less likely to die of cancer or heart disease, in fact, were less likely to die of any cause!
Nuts have long been called heart-healthy, and the study is the largest ever done on whether eating them affects mortality.
The National Geographic "Blue Zone" study had also listed nut eating as one of the factors that contributed to longevity.
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Researchers tracked 119,000 men and women and found that those who ate nuts roughly every day were 20%less likely to die during the study period than those who never ate nuts. Eating nuts less often also appeared to lower the death risk, in direct proportion to consumption.
The risk of dying of heart disease dropped 29%and the risk of dying of cancer fell 11%among those who had nuts seven or more times a week compared with people who never ate them.
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The benefits were seen from peanuts as well as from pistachios, almonds, walnuts and other tree nuts. The researchers did not look at how the nuts were prepared, oiled or salted, raw or roasted. Nut eaters stayed slimmer, which could be an important factor to explain the reduced mortality.
The study was just published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The National Institutes of Health and the International Tree Nut Council Nutrition Research & Education Foundation sponsored the study, but the nut group had no role in designing it or reporting the results.
Researchers don't know why nuts may boost health. It could be that their unsaturated fatty acids, minerals and other nutrients lower cholesterol and inflammation, as earlier studies seemed to show.
Observational studies like this one can't prove cause and effect, only suggest a connection. Research on diets is especially tough, because it can be difficult to single out the effects of any one food.
"Sometimes when you eat nuts you eat less of something else like potato chips," so the benefit may come from avoiding an unhealthy food, Sacco said.
Many previous studies tie nut consumption to lower risks of heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer and other maladies.
In 2003, the Food and Drug Administration said a fistful of nuts a day as part of a low-fat diet may reduce the risk of heart disease..
Compared with people who never ate nuts, those who ate nuts less than once a week reduced their risk of death 7% once a week, 11% two to four times a week, 13% and seven or more times a week, 20%.