As Americans age, they gain an extra pound of weight annually on average. One way to quell this steady rise in weight is to make nuts a part of your daily diet. According to an in-depth study out of Harvard University T.H Chan School of Public Health in Boston, adding a handful of nuts—say, 12 almonds or 10 walnut halves—can cause less weight gain to occur and can lower one’s risk of obesity.
The co-author of the study wrote that, while people who consistently ate nuts gained half a pound of weight annually, those who ate nuts only now and then gained, on average, about one pound each year. That may not sound like a big difference, but “those-half-pounds add up over time.”
Part of the reason for this is that the protein and fiber in nuts tend to fill people up, leaving them satisfied for longer and less susceptible to cravings. The very act of chewing may also act as a deterrent from eating too many nuts, because they take more work to consume than other snack foods.
