Friday, January 17, 2014

Nuts to You!

Blog Feature: "Nuts to you!"
 
Good Nuts!
 


Walking is an important component for those that plan for weight loss or weight maintenance once excessive weight is lost; but simply walking for weight management is not enough.  More of the variance is controlled by diet than exercise.  Now we find that eating nuts is important variable for weight loss.

A study out of Loma Linda University tracked the diet behaviors of over 800 adults.  Of those that ate at least a handful of nuts each week, the authors found that the nut group were less likely to be overweight than controls.  Moreover, these nut eaters experienced the thralls of Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) to a 7% less degree than the non tree kernel eaters.  MetS is defined as a cluster of conditions including a large waistline; and high cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar that increase the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and death.  Healthy tree nuts include — almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamias, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios, and walnuts. 

However, I harbor a bit of skepticism of the Loma Linda study.  Without having looked at the actual study, the NewsMaxHealth summary gave hints that it was a correlational study rather than a causality study.   Correlational studies work well for predicting but are not reliable for determining cause and effect. For example, it is not for nothing that more and more of us Boomers are eating our daily dose of tree nuts. We’ve read the excerpts from NEJM and other scholarly sources touting the importance of nuts in the daily diet. The same ones of us that eat nuts for our health might also exercise more, eat less fatty food and more fiber rich foods, see our doctor more regularly, and sleep more soundly than those less inclined to follow MetS healthy daily regiments. Thus the correlation might be caused one or a combination of these behaviors rather than just eating nuts.

Still, Ms S and I keep a large container of these nuts in the freezer, and a smaller plastic container in the pantry.  We limit ourselves to five or six nuts a day, about 15 to 20 calories. See the link below for more details of the nut study.

Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmaxhealth.com/Health-News/nuts-obesity-weight-loss/2014/01/09/id/546252#ixzz2qgrKpy8B

Journal Data:

Weight = 176.8 lbs, going down .2 lbs a weigh-in since posting my weight loss resolution.

Coinage = $2.41 including five quarters but gave four of them to one of the “kings and princes” of Midcity who “just wanted some change to get something to eat.”  I never question and never scold, but do require an introduction and eye contact—the transaction of humanity.

GPS Tracking Data = 5.10 miles walked at average of 16.37 minutes per mile; calories burned equaled 537.

Recycled = two sweat shirts

Happy walking!
The MoneyWalker

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