Integrating pecans into your daily diet would help maintain your weight, thus preventing obesity, and reducing the risk of diabetes.
- A mouse study shows that pecans reduce inflammation and increase energy expenditure.
- Thus, it decreases the risk of obesity and diabetes.
- They can be consumed raw or in the form of food supplements.
Eat pecans! This is the subject of a study from Texas A&M University. In the specialist journal MDPIits authors explain that pecans have many health benefits: they reduce inflammation, help maintain body weight and reduce the risk of diabetes.
Pecans: a healthy alternative to diets that are too high in fat
“The number of people affected by obesity and diabetes is increasing in our modern societies all over the world, and the tendency to consume high fat diet is one of the major reasons besides lifestyle and genetic predispositionexplains Dr. Luis Cisneros-Zevallos, professor of horticulture and food science in the Department of horticultural sciences within Texas A&M. People are looking for healthier options, and we’ve now shown pecans to be one of those healthy tools consumers have in their hands..”
This fruit, from the pecan tree, is native to the southeastern United States and Mexico. The nut contained in its shell has been known to be healthy for a very long time. South American traditions considered it very nutritious.
Obesity, diabetes, inflammation: the many benefits of pecans
This time, researchers conducted scientific work to prove this popular belief. They used mice, which were fed different diets. The authors found that pecans increased energy expenditure and reduced dysbiosis, or the imbalance of the intestinal flora, and inflammation in these rodents.
“The study confirmed that pecans modulate adipose tissue lipolysis and mitochondrial oxidative metabolism in liver and skeletal muscle.”, they develop. The anti-inflammatory properties of pecans reduced low-stage inflammation, which leads to chronic inflammation, and lowered the chances of developing various common diseases. However, the mice had a diet rich in fats. According to the study’s lead author, Dr. Luis Cisneros-Zevallos, this shows that pecans maintain body weight and prevent diabetes despite this high-fat diet.
Pecans: finding new ways to eat them to prevent obesity
With the co-authors, he believes that pecans can be classified as superfoods, that group of food products that are very rich in nutrients. The researchers therefore recommend eating it as it is or in the form of food supplements.
However, it could also be consumed in new forms. “The more we know about the unique features of pecans, the more opportunities we have to create healthier products.“, says Dr. Luis Cisneros-Zevallos.
