Eating peanuts may prevent heart attack
Eating peanuts
with a meal may help protect against cardiovascular diseases such
as heart attacks and stroke, an
international team of researchers has found. After a meal, there is a spike
in blood lipids, and triglycerides — a type of fat found in the bloodstream –
which stiffen arteries and lead to cardiovascular disease. The findings
showed that healthy men who ate about three ounces of peanuts with a high-fat
meal had a blunted increase of lipids in their bloodstream. There was also
a 32 per cent reduction in the triglyceride levels after the consumption of the
peanut along with the meals. “Typically, whenever we eat something, it
causes the arteries to get a little bit stiffer during the post-meal period,
but we have shown that if you eat peanuts with your meal, this can help prevent
the stiffening response,” said Penny Kris-Etherton, Professor at Pennsylvania
State University, in the US.
When the
stiffening response happens in the cells that line the arteries, it results in
decreased elasticity in the arteries as it limits the availability of nitric
oxide — which helps arteries in dilation for them to be elastic. “After a
meal, triglycerides increase and this typically decreases the dilation of the
arteries, but the peanuts prevent that big increase in triglycerides after the
meal,” Kris-Etherton said, in the paper published in the Journal of Nutrition. Over
time, the arterial stiffening response can limit blood flow throughout the body
and cause the heart to work harder, increasing the risks of serious
cardiovascular problems over time. “As the heart works harder and harder,
over a longer period of time, it could lead, ultimately, to heart failure,”
Kris-Etherton added.
01.04.2017
It’s not about what it is, it’s
about what it can become
Dr. Seuss
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