The New Complete Book of Food
rancid. Nuts in sealed cans and jars may stay fresh for as long as a year if stored in a cool,
dark place. Once the can or jar is opened, the oils will begin to oxidize and eventually
become rancid.Medical Uses and/or Benefits
Lower risk of some birth defects. As many as two of every 1,000 babies born in the United
States each year may have cleft palate or a neural tube (spinal cord) defect due to their
mothers’ not having gotten adequate amounts of folate during pregnancy. The current R DA
for folate is 180 mcg for a woman and 200 mcg for a man, but the FDA now recommends
400 mcg for a woman who is or may become pregnant. Taking folate supplements before
becoming pregnant and continuing through the first two months of pregnancy reduces the
risk of cleft palate; taking folate through the entire pregnancy reduces the risk of neural
tube defects.
Lower levels of cholesterol. Although nuts are high in fat, they are low in saturated fat and,
as plant foods, have no cholesterol at all. Several recent studies have shown that eating nuts
lowers blood levels of cholesterol and low-density lipoproteins (LDLs, or “bad” cholesterol)
while raising blood levels of high-density lipoproteins (HDLs, or “good” cholesterol).
At Loma Linda University (California), volunteers with mildly elevated cholesterol
levels were given two diets. First they tried the American Heart Association (AHA) Step
I diet, the low-fat, controlled-cholesterol regimen generally used as a first step in reducing
cholesterol levels. Then, they got the same diet with one small adjustment: 20 percent of its
daily calories came from a handful of nuts (almonds, pecans, or walnuts) mixed into cereals,
salads, and entries such as pasta. The result: While the AHA Step I diet lowered total cho-
lesterol 5.2 percent, when volunteers added nuts their cholesterol levels fell as much as 11.3
percent. Even better, while LDLs dropped 6.1 percent on the AHA diet, they fell a whopping
16.5 percent with pecans. This is significant because the National Cholesterol Education
Program estimates that your risk of heart attack declines 1.5 percent for every 1 percent drop
in LDLs. Loma Linda researchers had similar results with the diets that included almonds
or walnuts.Adverse Effects Associated with This Food
Allergic reaction. According to the Merck Manual, nuts are one of the 12 foods most likely to
trigger classic food allergy symptoms: hives, swelling of the lips and eyes, and upset stom-
ach. The others are berries (blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries), chocolate,
corn, eggs, fish, legumes (green peas, lima beans, peanuts, soybeans), milk, peaches, pork,
shellfish, and wheat (see wheat cereals).
Flare-up of aphthous ulcers (canker sores). Eating nuts may trigger an episode of canker sores
in susceptible people, but avoiding nuts will not prevent or cure an attack.