Eating Nuts & Peanuts Associated with Reduced Overall, Cardiovascular Death

Eating Nuts & Peanuts Associated with Reduced Overall, Cardiovascular Death Eating nuts and peanuts was associated with a reduced risk of overall death and death from cardiovascular disease across different ethnic groups and among individuals with low socioeconomic status, which suggests that peanuts, because of their affordability, may be a cost-effective measure to improve cardiovascular health, according to an article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine. Xiao-Ou Shu, M.D., Ph.D., of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, and coauthors sought to examine the association between nut/peanut consumption and mortality. The authors analyzed three large study groups involving 71,764 low-income black and white men and women living in the southeastern United States and 134,265 Chinese men and women living in Shanghai, China. Men in both the U.S. and Chinese study participant groups consumed more peanuts than women. In the U.S. group, about 50 percent of the nut/peanut consumption was peanuts and in the participant groups from China only peanut consumption was assessed. Study results indicate that nut intake was associated with reduced risk of total mortality and cardiovascular disease (CVD) death in all three groups. In the U.S. study participant group, there was a reduced risk of total mortality of 21 percent for individuals who ate the most peanuts. In the Chinese study participant groups, the risk reduction for death associated with high nut intake was 17 percent in a combined analysis. An association between high nut intake and reduced risk of ischemic heart disease was seen for all the ethnic groups.