Those Pesky Walnuts Trick You Into Following A Diet

Walnuts are recommended as part of a healthy diet. It reduces cholesterol and adds a unique quality to any diet and is a rich source of vitamin E and essential fatty acids. Did you also know it might also psychologically trick you into becoming healthier?

A new study conducted by a team lead by David L. Katz, founding director of Yale University Prevention Center tested the effects of walnuts on the dietary lifestyle of people and concluded that walnuts makes people follow a diet strictly, more so than people who don’t have walnuts.

The study included participation of 112 people of various age groups who were made to include 2 ounces of walnuts in their diets for 6 months. At the conclusion of the 6 months, participants were told to omit walnuts from their diets for another 6 months. The participants were then split into half with one half receiving nutrition counseling. The study found that the group who did not receive nutrition counseling still had a better plan in achieving their dietary goals.

Eating walnuts directly lead to people making healthier dietary choices and Katz believes that the walnuts ultimately helped the participants to feel fuller due to the high amount of calories present in it. “The take-away here is: eat walnuts routinely, improve your overall diet quality – and apparently, without risk of weight gain. That is because though high in calories, walnuts are very satiating. That high ratio of satiety-to-calories makes them helpful in appetite control,” says Katz.

So having a handful of walnuts per day could help in controling the amount of food you eat per day and improve your overall health. Isn’t that why we turn to diets in the first place?