Why you should take a crack at this humble nut hero

That old adage is certainly right on the money — good things do come in small packages!

In this case, that good thing is the humble walnut, often reserved for the holidays when we bring out the nut bowls and nutcrackers.

But if you are only partaking in walnuts every so often, you’re missing out on a lot of health returns that you won’t find anywhere else.

And the best part is, you don’t need a truckload of these tasty treats to reap the benefits.

A superfood in a shell

If Big Pharma could duplicate all the good things that the walnut has to offer, it could certainly make a drug that’s worth billions! But in this case, Mother Nature knows a lot more than a laboratory filled with even the smartest “nutty professors” out there.

While plenty of past studies have turned up incredible news about this superfood, the most recent research may be the first to uncover exactly why they’re such a powerhouse of health perks.

And it looks like it all begins in your gut — or more precisely the beneficial bacteria that we’re now learning is the cornerstone of good health and a strong immune system.

Researchers at Louisiana State University experimented on lab rats, giving one group a diet that included ground walnuts in an amount equal to about 2 ounces, or half-a-cup daily in humans, and the other group a diet similar in calories and nutrients but without the walnuts.

What lead researcher Dr. Lauri Byerley found was that walnuts can “change the gut.”

In fact, the nuts acted as a prebiotic, a compound that promotes and “feeds” the beneficial bacteria that are so important to your health. At the end of 10 weeks, the rats who ate the walnuts had much higher levels of several types of desirable bacteria in their gut, such as one called Lactobacillus.

That may not sound like a very dramatic finding, but as Dr. Byerley put it, “The health of the gut is related to overall health in the rest of the body.”

The researchers also noted that walnuts are one of the few foods rich in omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), as well as containing an amazing array of phytochemicals, antioxidant polyphenols, fiber, and an extremely high concentration of antioxidants.

That’s a lot going on inside one little nut!

Then there’s the recently-published Chinese study that found eating walnuts can help prevent heart disease, a benefit not found in several other kinds of nuts, including almonds. The high levels of ALA in walnuts reduce inflammation of a special type of cell in tissue that lines the heart and blood vessels.

And those are only the latest findings about the amazing benefits of walnuts, which previous research has shown can keep you healthy in numerous other ways, such as:

• Preventing type 2 diabetes: Harvard researchers found that women who ate a little less than an ounce of walnuts twice a week lowered their risk of becoming diabetic by nearly 25 percent.

• Reducing the odds of breast, prostate, and colon cancer: In one study, for example, mice fed a diet rich in walnuts were significantly less likely to develop prostate tumors — a result that the study’s senior author called “stunning.”

• Lowering your risk of digestive system disorders: In addition to helping prevent kidney stones and normalizing blood sugar levels, walnuts can make it less likely that you’ll get such ailments as IBS, hemorrhoids, and many others.

Seriously, I could on and on with what walnuts can do for your well-being! But the takeaway from all this research should really end up in your kitchen.

Walnuts go great with shrimp and noodle dishes, are yummy in rice and stir fries, make a wonderful addition to veggies of all kinds — and of course, they are the perfect topping for lots of different desserts.

So, go grab a bag and see what culinary masterpieces you can create that will be just as healthy as they are delicious.

“Walnuts may promote health by changing gut bacteria” Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, July 28, 2017, ScienceDaily, sciencedaily.com