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NUTS:
A Surprising Health Benefit for Women
Eating
a handful of nuts weekly has been found to help ward off Type
2 diabetes for woman in a recent Harvard study. Research suggests
that unsaturated fats found in nuts may improve a woman's
ability to use insulin and regulate blood glucose, which is
sugar.
Type
2 Diabetes
Type 2
diabetes is the most common form of diabetes - 90%-95% of
all people with diabetes have Type 2 diabetes. Its a lifelong
disease that occurs when the pancreas cannot produce enough
insulin or when the body becomes resistant to insulin. Insulin
lets sugar (glucose) enter body cells, where it is stored
for energy. It also helps the body store extra sugar and lets
the body use the stored energy later. Type 2 diabetes develops
when your body becomes resistant to insulin.
Who
Was Studied
The Harvard
study included 84,000 female nurses living in the U.S. The
woman filled out questionnaires about their diet over a 16-year
period. They ranged from 34 -59 years old and had no history
of diabetes, heart disease or cancer.
The results
showed that women who ate at a minimum of 5 1-ounce servings
of nuts or peanut butter weekly cut their risk of developing
Type 2 diabetes by 20%. Those who ate less than 1-ounce of
nuts in a week had an 8% lower risk for the disease.
Reduce
Your Risk
Adding
nuts to your diet to avoid developing Type 2 diabetes is a
good idea. But it should be done as a substitute for other
foods. Nuts are high in fat and if added to your diet without
cutting other caloric intake may make weight gain more likely.
Information
for this article is from www.webmd.com
and the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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