Half a handful of nuts a day 'reduces early death risk'

Conclusion This Dutch cohort of middle-aged to elderly adults generally found people were less likely to die in the following 10 years if they ate a small number of nuts a day compared with none. The study has strengths in its large sample size and that cause of death was followed up for the full cohort using valid medical codes. However, there are various points to bear in mind before we jump to the conclusion that nuts are the magic ingredient that will slash our risk of death. No clear trends It is difficult to draw any clear interpretations about how nut consumption may be associated with risk of death overall or from specific causes. There weren't clear linear trends where increasing consumption was associated with increasingly decreased risk, and often the middle consumption category (5-10g per day) had the lowest risk. This is roughly a small handful of nuts, depending on the type of nut. Not all of the risk decreases for different consumption categories or diseases were significant, meaning we can't be sure there is any real decreased risk compared with non-consumption. Small sub-group size When looking at specific cause of death, some of the analysis was based on very small numbers of people. The analysis for diabetes came from the comparison of 85 diabetes deaths in the non-consumption group, 46 in the 0.1-5g category, only eight deaths in the 5-10g category, and 19 in the more than 10g category. Analyses based on such small numbers of people may be less reli...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Cancer Heart/lungs Diabetes Source Type: news