The Food That Slashes Your Diabetes Risk

Next to peanut butter and almond milk, walnuts don’t get much love—but there’s a new reason to stock your nut bowl with them: Eating walnuts could reduce your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, according to a new study published in the Journal of Nutrition.

Researchers analyzed data collected by the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) and NHS II, two separate decade-long studies that tracked the diets and health records of 138,000 women. While all of the participants were disease-free at the beginning of the study, 5,930 of them developed Type 2 diabetes during the 10-year span. Women who ate at least eight ounces of walnuts a month (that’s a little more than two cups of walnut halves) had a 24 percent lower risk of developing Type 2 diabetes than the women who rarely ate walnuts. Better yet: Walnut-eaters were also leaner than the women who ate the nuts only on occasion.

While researchers didn’t examine exactly how walnuts fight diabetes, they suspect it has to do with polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). Walnuts are full of them—and that’s a good thing. After all, past research has shown that PUFAs may reduce insulin sensitivity, which helps reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes, says lead study author An Pan, PhD, research associate in the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. And like other tree nuts, walnuts contain protein, plant sterols, fiber, and antioxidants, which may also play a role in fighting Type 2 diabetes, he says.

A healthy lifestyle may also be what’s helping nut-eaters fend off disease, says Pan. People who consume nuts tend to eat better in general, exercise more, weigh less, and have lower body mass indexes (BMI), he says. Worried about the calorie content of nuts? Don’t be: Previous studies suggest that eating nuts doesn’t lead to weight gain—especially when you choose them over meats or unhealthy foods, says Pan.

So go ahead: Hit up the nut bowl for walnuts a few times a week. Or try one of these tasty recipes, all of which call for the diabetes-fighting food:

Whole-Wheat Walnut-Raisin Rolls