

New study shows nuts reduce cardiovascular disease risk up to 55% - debugunit
http://www.anti-agingfirewalls.com/2013/12/01/nuts-over-nuts/

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greenyoda
Note that these results are not the results of controlled experiments. The
people who were eating nuts had other attributes that could have accounted for
their better health:

 _Specifically, several confounding variables in the data could have accounted
for part of the “nut effect”. The confounding variables included BMI, smoking,
and exercise. Those that consumed nuts and ate a Mediterranean diet also had a
lower BMI, a lower waist circumference, were less likely to smoke, and were
more physically active. These factors may have “skewed” the results in favor
of the “nut eaters.”_

Also, the people who eat more nuts are probably eating _less_ of something
else. Since nuts are frequently eaten as snacks, it's likely that they're
eating nuts instead of sugary, processed food like cookies or candy. So the
improved health could be the result of what they're _not_ eating rather than
what they _are_ eating.

Edit: Reading the article reminded me of this paper:

"Why Most Published Research Findings Are False" (2005)

By John P. A. Ioannidis

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1182327/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1182327/)

There's also a discussion of Ioannidis' work here:

"Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science" (2010)

[http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/11/lies-
dam...](http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/11/lies-damned-lies-
and-medical-science/308269/?single_page=true)

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raverbashing
There's another thing at play as well: what's "nuts"?

It's more of a linguistic categorization than anything else.

And even though they may share some dietetic properties, well, Brazil nuts are
one thing, Almonds are another, Pistachios are another.

~~~
tomp
And peanuts are not even nuts! (But legumes.)

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dualogy
Glad to see we're reading the same mag ;) [http://www.thepaepae.com/wp-
uploads/2013/12/Your-wrong-magaz...](http://www.thepaepae.com/wp-
uploads/2013/12/Your-wrong-magazine.png)

~~~
jacalata
I think that factoid is pretty widespread actually.

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polskibus
If this is true, squirrels should be immortal. Seriously though, nuts are
quite hard to digest - you shouldnt really eat a lot of them especially when
you are old - digesting nuts puts excessive strain on your liver, etc.

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Fundlab
Boiled peanuts are anything but hard to digest. It appears the mode of
preparation or consumption determines the level of strain it puts on the
digestive system.

BTW i have a 90yr old dad who consumes roasted and salted peanuts daily. YMMV

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yconst
Not even having read the article, I just want to express my disgust towards
the often used "up to x" type statistics and their deceptive misguiding
nature.

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debugunit
Submitter here - guilty as charged. Apologies.

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drpgq
So was the low fat recommendations by the health establishment one of the more
epic failures in human history?

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username42
Then nutella is healthy ? I can put back
[http://www.nutelladay.com/](http://www.nutelladay.com/) in my bookmarks ?

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brazzy
It's unlikely that the effect of its 13% hazelnut content offsets the over 50%
pure sugar.

But then, the very idea of "healthy" and "unhealthy" foods is a fallacy.
What's healthy or unhealthy is your diet in its entirety.

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paul_f
Are peanuts really nuts in this context? The article mentions them, but my
understanding is that they are legumes, not nuts.

~~~
lobster_johnson
The study actually distinguishes between "tree nuts" and "peanuts", with
separate variables for each.

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tmikaeld
Seems quite speculative, as mentioned in the comments. How are the nuts
prepared?

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CmonDev
I just knew dough nuts are ought to be healthy!

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traughber
This is nuts.

