Eating even a small amount of nuts per week could help the heart. Over a 17-year period beginning in 1982, researchers administered questionnaires on diet, health and exercise to more than 21,000 male physicians across the US. At the start of the investigation, known as the Physicians Health Study, all the participants were healthy and between the ages of 40 and 84.
The researchers found that 20% of the men rarely or never ate nuts. Approximately one quarter ate a one-ounce portion of nuts once a week, while less than 15% said they ate nuts two to four times per week. People consuming nuts five or more times weekly represented just over 6% of the men polled.
Men who ate two or more one-ounce servings of nuts each week had a 47% lower risk of sudden death due to cardiac arrest compared with those who ate nuts less often. Sudden cardiac death was defined as a death that occurred within one hour after symptoms began.
While the researchers found eating nuts did not appear to lower the risk of a non-fatal heart attack or the risk of non-sudden cardiac death, the overall risk for heart disease death appeared to be 30% lower among those who ate nuts at least twice a week.
The researchers cautioned that other observed lifestyle factors among nut-eaters may play a role in the association. For example, those who ate nuts tended to be younger, more likely to exercise and less likely to smoke or have high blood pressure.
The researchers suggested that the nutritional content of nuts -- which include high amounts of vitamin E, magnesium, potassium and so-called "healthy" unsaturated fats -- may be responsible for their apparent benefit..
Some nuts -- such as walnuts -- are relatively high in alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), an omega-3 fat that helps prevent abnormal heart rhythms and has been shown to cut the risk of sudden cardiac death among people who have already suffered a heart attack.
Archives of Internal Medicine June 24, 2002;162:1382-1387
Clearly this study points out the value of whole foods such as nuts. However, I suspect most of the benefit in this study resulted from the profound deficiencies of omega-3 fats that most people have.
Even the marginal amounts of ALA in some of the nuts, especially walnuts, were helpful in producing the benefits.
However, generally most ALA is not converted to EPA and DHA, the longer chain omega-3 fats, that are have far more of the benefits of the omega-3 oils.
I suspect you would not see the same results however for honey roasted cashews.
In my experience one needs to be cautious with nuts, especially if one has high levels of insulin, which can be measured directly, or assumed if you have one or more of the following problems.
If you struggle with these problems than it would likely be best if you avoided nuts as they also have omega-6 fats that tends to counterbalance the benefits. Additionally most are relatively high in carbohydrates that can also raise insulin levels.
Seeds also fall into this category except they have far less carbohydrates and are thus less problematic.
However most all seeds, except flax and chia, are relatively high in omega-6 fats. Please remember that the average omega 6:3 ratio for Americans is 15:1. It should be 1:1, so any omega 6 fats for most Americans is not a good thing.
So if you are healthy and do not have any of the above problems, seeds and nuts are likely to be fine in small quantities.
If you have most any disease or any of the above insulin related problems you will want to avoid all seeds and nuts except for flax, chia and walnuts.
The best way to obtain flax is not from the oil, but to use a coffee grinder to freshly grind flax seeds. This way you will also obtain the benefits of the lignin fiber in the seeds and have the least oxidized and damaged fat.
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