Pecans
You know you should be following a more heart-healthy diet, but you
dread the boredom of a low-fat, tasteless diet that leaves you hungry
all the time.
For you and millions of others like you, there’s good news! Pecan
nuts can help the health conscious stick to their cholesterol-
lowering diets - and will even double its effectiveness.
In the first controlled metabolic clinical study on the health
benefits of pecans, researchers from Loma Linda University in
California have discovered a heart-healthy diet, which incorporates
the nut, can significantly lower blood cholesterol levels.
In fact, the daily addition of pecans more than doubled the
effectiveness (cholesterol-lowering ability) of a traditional low-fat
diet.
The research was published in the September issue of the Journal of
Nutrition.
Study participants were fed both a basic low-fat heart healthy diet
(the type a doctor might suggest when you first learn your
cholesterol levels are too high) and a similar diet that replaced 20
percent of the calories with pecans (e.g., by adding pecans to
salads, cereal and entrees).
Although both diets lowered total and bad cholesterol levels, the
pecan diet (which contained 11 percent more fat than the traditional
heart-healthy diet), lowered cholesterol levels twice as much.
In fact, the response to the pecan diet was as great as that which
some people experience with cholesterol-lowering drugs, say the
researchers. Moreover, even on the higher fat pecan diet, study
participants did not gain weight.
This pecan study not only demonstrates why a heart-healthy diet does
not have to be bland and tasteless in order to be good for you, it
adds scientific support to a growing body of evidence supporting the
increased use of pecans and other tree nuts in a heart-healthy diet.
Hmmm … now I can’t remember if pecans are avoids or not … will
have to look into this!
September 1st, 2004 at 2:12 pm
Our thoughts and sympathy with you.
Take care, blessings, Rose/Hun
September 2nd, 2004 at 1:39 am
Good for you, Axel.!!!
And for us, “mostly HB”-challengers….pumpkin seeds & walnuts.
My fave is still a neutral….almonds + butter.
Wonder what else I can spread almond butter on, other than celery.
Pecans are neutral, also.
Once loved eating those commercial-packaged, “Pecan Sandies”, but
it’s a no-no. Oh well.
May God keep us all well + bless all who went to Heaven,
Gaye
September 5th, 2004 at 11:09 am
I think you are forgetting the whole point of the blood type diet
concept — that different people respond differently. The low-fat,
whole food, vegetarian diet as promoted by Dean Ornish has been
categorically proven to reverse heart disease for a large percentage
of those studied. That does not deny that some are not helped by it,
but it has been scientifically demonstrated. D’Adamo’s research and
theories would suggest that most of those helped would probably be
type A. Not trying to criticize what works for you, but simply to
reinterate that the Ornish diet does work, at least for many who have
heart disease. Personally, I am type A-, having joined this list to
gain insights into what works for O, since my wife is O.
The other insight which research has brought has been the emphasis on
better fats than others and the danger of transfatty acids found in
most magarines and processed food. I have always felt butter was
more healthy than margarine, though I still question how healthy
large amounts would be. Again, type O’s may find greater benefit and
my wife does seem to crave more fat than I do.
Finally, the problem of high glycemic foods such as sugar, white
potatoes, etc. is more the issue that the notion that carbs are evil
in general. It does sound like type O’s do much better with higher
protein. Would an Atkins level of protein be helpful or harmful. I
know they are studying that question at Duke University. But again,
type O’s may need more protein than A’s and suffer with too many
carbs.
I only ask that you not sell short what type A’s need. I would also
be interested in other things that seems to work well for O’s (yes I
have the first book but want to know which ones really make a
difference). So far my O list is as follows:
- Eat some red meat but avoid wheat (I believe these two go together)
- Eat some more fat but deemphasize carbs (that includes sugar
unfortunately for my sweet tooth wife)
- Be careful with which type of beans we choose and have her
deemphasize beans since O’s have problems.
Anything else that seems to be a clear win?
Ray
September 6th, 2004 at 8:04 am
Who are you speaking to in this message? I want to think
you are addressing my recent response to the same post,
but as you have not addressed me by name I am unsure as
to whom you are speaking to.
September 7th, 2004 at 6:05 am
To start with, I say you are great to do this for your wife.
OK, avoiding wheat and reducing carbs is fine, you’d do a great job
if you reduced all grains radically. It would be worth finding out your
wife’s secretor status, because being a non-secretor brings about
quite a lot of changes! More grains become avoids and an even
smaller quantity is to be consumed. Soy is an avoid, dairy is even
more to be avoided, etc. I’d go in that direction.
Rose/Hun (O non-sec)
September 7th, 2004 at 2:56 pm
Also her sweet tooth craving should reduce after being on the diet.
September 7th, 2004 at 5:32 pm
L-Glutamine powder is suppose to be good for O’s,
and also it’s suppose to curb sweet cravings.
Maybe this would be a good addition for you, too.
I’ve only tried it for 2 days now in the mornings, but thinking of
using it during late hours when up.
Gaye
diet.