You say in today's column, "One important study shows that nuts added to a Mediterranean Diet made a huge difference in developing metabolic syndrome. (Arch Intern Med 2008: 168; 2449 - 2458)"
Do you mean that adding nuts to the Mediterranean diet makes a huge difference in preventing metabolic syndrome?
Dr. Gourmet Says...
This is exactly the case.
We know that adding monounsaturated fats helps improve cholesterol profile and metabolic syndrome. There's a lot of great choices including almonds, walnuts, peanuts and pecans. I would far prefer my patients have nuts than any sort of processed snack such as potato chips, crackers or pretzels.
I often use nuts in Dr. Gourmet recipes to add both flavor and texture and I love using slivered almonds, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds and chopped pecans.
Thanks for writing,
Timothy S. Harlan, M.D.
Dr. Gourmet