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Want To Lower Cholesterol Without Meds? Eating This Nut Might Be The Answer, Per A New Study

Want To Lower Cholesterol Without Meds? Eating This Nut Might Be The Answer, Per A New Study

Yahoo23-03-2025
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links."
In the world of nuts, pecans have always reigned supreme as a fan favorite. It makes sense: They deliver a delicious flavor and add flare to any dish. Plus, they're really good for your health. Pecans have several key nutrients (including fiber, copper, thiamine, and zinc) and can help improve blood sugar, as well as heart and brain health, per Healthline. And now, thanks to a new study, there's one more reason to add pecans to your list of best snacks: They could help lower your cholesterol.
At least, that's the major takeaway from a new study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. And since high cholesterol is linked to serious health complications like heart disease and stroke, this is news worth paying attention to. Below, the study co-author and a dietitian break down the science behind these findings, and explain what they mean for your diet.
Meet the experts: Jessica Cording, RD, CDN, author of The Little Book of Game-Changers; Kristina Petersen, PhD, study co-author and associate professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at Penn State University
The randomized controlled trial had 138 participants either consume 57 grams (or 2 ounces) of pecans a day in place of their usual snacks or to keep on eating their usual diet.
After 12 weeks, the researchers discovered that people in the pecan-eating snack group lowered their total cholesterol by about 8.1 mg/dL. They also had drops in their low-density lipoprotein (LDL or 'bad') cholesterol, non-high-density lipoprotein (HDL or 'good') cholesterol, the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol, and triglycerides (a type of fat in the blood) compared to those who didn't eat pecans. In total, that marks a total cholesterol reduction of about 3.75 percent, and for LDL-C, about 6.6 percent.
There was a slight downside, though: People in the pecan group gained more weight than those in the regular diet group.
The study didn't dive into how pecans may improve cholesterol, but WH tapped trusted experts to better understand this relationship. And they had a few theories.
For starters, pecans contain unsaturated fats, fiber, and plant sterols, which are known to lower blood cholesterol levels, says Kristina Petersen, PhD, study co-author and associate professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at Penn State University. And in the study, pecans 'displaced' less healthy snack foods, allowing people to focus on healthier choices, she points out.
Pecans are also rich in oleic acid, which is a form of unsaturated fat that's linked with lower LDL and HDL cholesterol, points out Jessica Cording, RD, CDN, author of The Little Book of Game-Changers. 'Generally speaking, oleic acid is considered heart-healthy,' she says.
Pecans are rich in soluble fiber, which binds to cholesterol in the stomach and helps to escort it out of the body, Cording explains. 'That fiber is very helpful for managing cholesterol,' she says.
One more thing to consider: Pecans provide polyphenols and antioxidants that can help protect cells from oxidative stress (an imbalance of free radicals and antioxidants in the body that leads to cell damage), and this indirectly impacts your cholesterol, according to Cording. 'If your cells have undergone a lot of damage from poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, and stress, your body isn't going to work as efficiently,' she says. 'But eating an antioxidant-rich diet helps your cells by extension and helps the body do things more efficiently, including clearing fat from the food we eat. That can be reflected in cholesterol numbers.'
It's best to aim for two ounces of pecans a day, which is about two medium handfuls, Petersen says.
Nuts are a solid source of plant-based protein and a heart-healthy food, Cording says. Women's Health actually did a deep dive into the protein benefits of various nuts you can dive into for more information.
They're also a nutrient-dense food, giving you a lot of bang for your eating buck, Petersen says. And they're versatile, too, as far as food goes. 'Nuts can be incorporated into the diet in many ways e.g. eaten plain as a snack, added as a topping to oatmeal, breakfast cereal or yogurt, or used as a plant protein alternative to meats,' Petersen says.
If you're looking to ramp up your diet, 'nuts a great way to add nutrition to a meal,' Cording says.
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Strength training twice a week is the recommended minimum, says Deborah Gomez Kwolek, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and the founding lead of the Mass General Women's Health and Sex and Gender Medicine Program. You can start small, using dumbbells at home, and work your way up to three or four sessions a week. Arellano Simpson is a good case study: She began with 15-minute strength training workouts on the Ladder app. Now she does two lower-body workouts and two upper-body workouts through the app every week. No matter how often you train, you want to target all major muscle groups—chest, back, legs, shoulders, arms, and core—and lift enough weight to put sufficient stress on the muscles so that they have to adapt. 'Choose a weight that, by the last repetition, you could probably do only about one or two more times before failure, or before your form breaks,' Milton says. 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You can find grip strength testers—called dynamometers—on Amazon. Know your . This metric tells you how much oxygen you use during exercise. 'In the clinical world, we use aerobic capacity to measure your risk for early morbidity and mortality,' says Milton. It's measured while you're engaged in cardio, but muscle mass is one of the main components determining your number. 'Muscle is the tissue with the mitochondria that utilize oxygen to produce ATP—which is the molecule needed for contraction,' she explains. Ensuring your VO2 max falls within a healthy range for your age and gender (look for charts online) can also provide insight into your overall muscle health. You can get a VO2 max test at a lab (give it a Google for locations near you) or use a wearable, like an Apple Watch or Oura Ring, for a general idea. Have blood work done. Remember how muscle helps regulate metabolism? 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