Many patients with coronary heart disease hear the advice to eat nuts, will be wide-eyed surprised to ask me: nuts do not contain a lot of oil? It’s not healthy, right?” . However, fate has a way of making things happen! Seems logical reasoning but also does not match the facts, but it is also true that the public’s deep-rooted misconceptions about nuts. The New England Journal of Medicine lists the under-eating of nuts and seeds as one of the top twelve culprits of cardiovascular disease, even more dangerous than hypercholesterolemia. What are nuts? Nuts are the fruit of the plant, botanically defined strictly as a fruit consisting of a hard rind and seeds, the rind does not crack when the fruit ripens. Broadly speaking, nuts refer to a wide variety of dried seeds with hard shells. Nuts are generally divided into two categories: one is the tree nuts including almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, walnuts, pine nuts, chestnuts, pistachios, macadamia nuts, etc.; the second is the seeds including peanuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and watermelon seeds. Nuts are rich in n-3 unsaturated fatty acids, phytosterols, vitamin E, plant fiber and L-arginine, it is this many beneficial components to produce a heart-healthy effect. Eat nuts will be fat? Nuts are high in calories, eating too much will be fat. This is the fear of most people. A number of studies show that on the basis of strict restrictions on total calories, adding nuts will not lead to weight gain, but rather help to lose weight. 4 years to adhere to a daily serving of nuts, fruits, vegetables, whole grains and yogurt, respectively, can make weight loss of 0.26, 0.22, 0.10, 0.17 and 0.37 kg, nuts are second only to yogurt in terms of weight loss. On the basis of controlling total calories, there is no need to worry too much about the calories of nuts will cause obesity, it should be said that nuts are a relatively healthy source of calories. Eating nuts can cause diabetes? The calories of nuts will not raise blood sugar? This is also a common concern. Recent studies have shown that regular consumption of tree nuts can reduce blood sugar in metabolic syndrome (further development will become diabetes) by 0.08 mmol/L. Eating walnuts twice a week can reduce the risk of diabetes by 21%;. Two meta-analyses were recently published, with different conclusions on whether nuts reduce the risk of diabetes due to inconsistent inclusion of studies. Most of the current findings support the idea that eating nuts in moderation not only does not cause diabetes, but helps prevent it. Can eating nuts lower cholesterol? In fact, research has found that moderate nut intake is beneficial for the control and prevention of cardiovascular disease. Nuts can lower serum cholesterol levels. After 4 weeks of replacing 20% of total calories with walnuts for fat, butter, red meat and other foods, total cholesterol dropped by 0.58 mmol/L and LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) dropped by 0.47 mmol/L. Another study also found that walnuts can reduce total cholesterol and bad cholesterol by 0.27 and 0.29 mmol/L, respectively. And cholesterol is considered to be the coronary heart disease The culprit. Can eating nuts prevent heart disease? Research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that eating nuts can prevent coronary heart disease and hypertension and prolong life. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that a small daily intake of nuts can prevent heart disease and extend life expectancy. Compared to never eating nuts, less than one, one, two to four, five to six and more than seven times a week, the risk of death was reduced by 7%, 1%, 13%, 15% and 20%; respectively, mainly by reducing the risk of dying from cancer, heart disease and respiratory disease. A handful of nuts a day reduces the risk of death by 20% and prolongs life! How to eat nuts to be healthy? Although good nuts should not be greedy for more, long-term adherence and moderate eating effect is better. The American College of Cardiology recommends the intake of nuts more than 4 times a week, each time 1 ounce (28 grams, previous research and nutrition guidelines will be 1 serving defined as 1.5 ounces, equivalent to 42 grams. According to the latest research and the American Heart Association’s recommendations modified to 1 serving equals 1 ounce), which is equivalent to a small handful per day. A small handful of unsweetened, unsalted and unfried plain nuts is best at breakfast each day, or at afternoon tea. Nuts instead of red meat, mix cold dishes with nuts or stir-fry with nuts. That can reduce the intake of saturated fat, but also to ensure that the calories and essential fatty acids, increase the intake of micronutrients, to maintain the taste of fragrant beauty, such as cashew celery.