Walnuts are some of the best snack foods to include in your diet. They have a large amount of health benefits that make them great additions to any meal or dish. Although we call them nuts, they are technically edible seeds that come from the Juglans genus trees. They are loved for their simple but delicious taste and their crunchy texture. The texture is what makes them excellent additions to meals and dishes.
When you eat walnuts, you automatically opt into its wide collection of health benefits. Walnuts have the ability to reduce your ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol, improve your metabolism, prevent inflammation, help regulate and manage weight, and control diabetes. They also improve the health of your brain and function as a mood booster.
Walnuts Health Benefits (In Depth Look)
Improves Heart Health
Like previously stated, eating walnuts helps to lower your ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol which helps to maintain your heart’s health. Part of the reason it is able to do this is due to its omega-3 fatty acid content. Omega-3s fight off inflammation and helps to improve your body’s lipid supply.
Reduce Inflammation
Inflammation is responsible for a lot of your body’s problems, including degenerative eye diseases, and neural diseases. It is even responsible for chronic conditions like arthritis. Walnuts do not have as many omega-3s as fatty fish, but they have enough to make a difference in your health.
Boost Bone Health
The essential fatty acids in walnuts also help to improve the health of your bones. They do this by increasing your body’s rate of calcium absorption and deposition. It also reduces the rate of urinary calcium excretion.
Antioxidant Power
Walnuts are antioxidants powerhouses, much in the way blackberries are. They have some of the rarer antioxidants like quinone juglone, and tannin tellimagrandin. These antioxidants kill free radicals that cause cancer.