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Good News About Nuts, Peanut Butter
Reported by Carolyn Clifford
Web produced by Kelly Reynolds

	According to a recent Harvard study, women who eat nuts and peanut butter reduce their risk of developing type II diabetes. Video

It's not exactly like chocolate turning out to be a health food, but it's close enough. Two snack foods most of us look on as guilty pleasures, actually may help protect us from diabetes.

"I thought that all nuts were bad for you because they were high in fat," one woman said.

Nuts are high in fat, but it's the good, unsaturated kind of fat. Nuts are also full of vitamins, minerals, protein, and fiber.

Harvard researchers knew nuts were healthy, but wanted to know if eating nuts could also cut a woman's risk of developing type II diabetes. They followed more than 83,000 women, ages 34 to 59, in the nurse's health study for 16 years. The women ate nuts, including peanut butter. The findings are published in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

"The study found the more nuts women eat, the less likely women developed type II diabetes," said Dr. Rui Jiang, Harvard researcher.

In fact, women who ate an ounce of nuts five times or more a week had almost 30 percent lower risk of developing type II diabetes than women who rarely ate nuts. Women who ate a tablespoon of peanut butter at least five times a week had a 25 percent lower risk than women who rarely ate peanut butter.

The study didn't look at what kind of nuts or peanut butter the women ate, but it did look at the issue of weight gain.

"In our study, women who ate more nuts did not gain more weight," Dr. Jiang said.

That's because they ate nuts instead of other fattening foods. The news that nuts and peanut butter cuts the risk of type II diabetes comes as a shock to many women, even those who already eat them.

"Of course I eat peanut butter. Everybody eats peanut butter, but I didn't think it was good for me," said one woman.

"I am surprised, yeah. I'm glad that I'm feeding my kids that though, because they need the fat, but now I'll eat them more," another woman said.

Doctors recommend that women eat more nuts, and less red and processed meats, and less refined grain products, such as cakes and white bread.



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