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Walnuts & Heart Health
Walnuts for Heart Health
A handful could go a long way to keeping your heart healthy, especially when eaten along with a meal that's high in saturated fat. Italian researchers chalk the heart-protecting affects up to a component called arginine.
Arginine is responsible for producing nitric oxide, a gas that helps keep the arteries flexible so they can allow enough blood to pass through to the heart.
Eating foods high in saturated fat disturbs the arteries' natural ability to produce nitric oxide, which in turn reduces the flexibility of the arteries and prevents adequate blood flow.
The investigators arrived at this finding after comparing artery flexibility among volunteers, half with normal cholesterol levels and half with slightly elevated levels.
This was done after the subjects consumed high-fat meals supplemented with either walnuts or olive oil, which has also been thought to promote heart healthiness.
While both helped reduce inflammation in the face of the high-fat meals, only the nuts produced the effect on artery flexibility.
Each time we eat a high-fat meal, the fat molecules trigger an inflammatory reaction that, among other ill effects, reduces the elasticity of the arteries.
Over time, this repeated damage is thought to contribute to hardening of the arteries and, in turn, to heart disease.
The latest research shows that eating these specific nuts helps to maintain the elasticity of the arteries.
These particular nuts also contain a plant form of omega-3 fatty acid.
These researchers now plan to see if the same holds true for the plant variety.
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