Almond heart-health benefit highlighted by experts

25/11/05 This week's events leave little doubt that almonds are good for your heart. Experts meeting in Dallas and at the American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific Sessions emphasized the need for a lifestyle that includes healthful eating and physical activity to promote heart health. Eating a handful of almonds each day as part of a healthy eating plan is a lifestyle change that can make a significant difference to heart health.

Over the span of three days, an independent expert panel, the AHA President Dr. Robert Eckel and a new study published in Tuesday's Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and presented at the AHA meeting all reinforced the conclusion that eating plans low in saturated fat and cholesterol -- like those including almonds -- are effective at reducing the risk of heart disease among Americans.

A large body of almond research, nearly a dozen clinical trials, already exists to demonstrate the effect of almonds on heart health as part of a healthful lifestyle. But to validate the research and provide guidance for future research, an independent expert panel convened in Dallas on November 13. The panel was comprised of top experts from the U.S., two of who were past AHA Nutrition Committee members, and experts from around the world.

Chaired by Dr. Penny Kris-Etherton, Pennsylvania State University and past AHA Nutrition Committee member, the panel was charged to review almond and heart-health research with a critical eye toward the veracity and total weight of the research and to explore how almond science could translate into heart- health guidelines. Overwhelmingly, the panel agreed that the almond heart- health research is substantial and supportive of a benefit.

In summary the panel's conclusions were: The almond research is very impressive. The studies are well done, published in peer-reviewed journals and very consistently have the same conclusions -- almonds as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol can reduce the risk of heart disease.

The panel will finalize recommendations to provide direction for the Almond Board of California's decade-old Nutrition Research Program. Each year, the Almond Board invests more than $1 million to better understand the role of almonds in promoting health by funding research at leading institutions.

On the heels of the expert panel's conclusions, cardiologists were challenged to approach patient care differently. During his opening remarks at the annual Scientific Sessions in Dallas, AHA President Dr. Robert Eckel urged cardiologists to spend at least three minutes talking to patients about lifestyle changes such as healthful eating and physical activity during an office visit. This small investment could make a significant improvement in patient care.

One easy way to make a big difference with a small change is to add a handful a day of almonds to a healthful eating plan. The body of research to support almonds as part of a healthful lifestyle continues to grow.

In a new study presented at the AHA meeting, researchers from Johns Hopkins University and Harvard University studied the effect of changing the amount of carbohydrates, protein and unsaturated fat in the diet on blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Almonds were eaten as a snack for both the protein and unsaturated fat diets.

In the end, all diets improved blood pressure and cholesterol levels compared to when participants started the study. However the protein and unsaturated fat diets improved blood pressure and LDL or "bad" cholesterol and total cholesterol levels more than the carbohydrate diet.

Research from the University of Toronto called the Portfolio Diet Study has demonstrated many times that the addition of almonds to an eating plan with other heart-healthy foods can reduce LDL or "bad" cholesterol as much as 35 percent, similar to cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins. To better understand how a dietary pattern can be used in a real-life situation, University of Toronto researchers have just completed a new phase of the Portfolio study that looks at the benefit of the Portfolio Eating Plan for people who incorporate the eating plan into regular, daily life without supervision. Results for this study are due to be published soon.

From all of this it seems experts agree that a healthful lifestyle that includes a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol and physical activity is key to promoting heart health. Almonds, as the research clearly and consistently shows, can be part of a healthy eating plan that reduces the risk of heart disease.

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