Reuters reports, via Yahoo News, that research findings in the New England Journal of Medicine show people who eat nuts regularly are less likely to develop heart disease and cancer. Here's the money quote:
During 30 years of the Nurses' Health Study, about 16,000 women died. About 11,000 men died over a 24-year period in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Compared to people who never ate nuts, those who ate nuts once a week were 11 percent less likely to die during the studies and those who ate nuts every day were 20 percent less likely to die.What is reported is correlation; causation while strongly implied is not proven. It is even remotely possible that being healthy causes an appetite for nuts that less healthy people don't have.
While the research was paid for by tree nut growers, the New England Journal of Medicine is very rigorous and the sample size is simply huge. If you feel up to reading scientific research, the article is available here.
