16th International Congress of Dietetics

Nuts for Life in collaboration with the INC World Forum for Nutrition Research and Dissemination organized a symposium entitled "Nut consumption, cardiovascular risk, body weight and diabetes" in the framework of the 16th International Congress of Dietetics, held in Sydney, Australia, from 5th to 8th of September 2012.

Researchers from the landmark PREDIMED study, Prof. Jordi Salas-Salvadó and Dr. Emilio Ros lectured on the latest studies that have associated the consumption of nuts with health.

PREDIMED is a long term study (2003-2011) undertaken by 16 research groups in 7 communities in Spain to study the effects of the Mediterranean diet on the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease in subjects at high risk of CVD.

In summary, PREDIMED has shown that a Mediterranean diet enriched with a 30g handful of mixed nuts a day can:

a) Reduce the risk of diabetes by 52%;
b) Reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome by 13.7%;
c) Reduce blood glucose levels, systolic and diastolic blood pressure and the LDL:HDL cholesterol ratio;
d) Decrease insulin resistance in those non diabetic individuals;
e) Improve biomarkers of inflammation and oxidation on the cardiovascular system, and
f) Reduce waist circumference.