Walnut-Rich Diet Significantly Benefits Lipid Levels

Incorporating healthy fats, such as olive oils or walnuts—which are high in polyunsaturated fats—can have a significant impact on women’s lipid levels, especially in women who are insulin-resistant.

Previous studies have shown the importance of distribution of energy sources in weight loss and cholesterol-lowering efforts, but the effects of insulin resistance status on this relationship are less well understood.
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For their study, researchers followed 245 overweight or obese women in a 1-year behavioral weight loss intervention, randomly assigning each woman to 1 of 3 diets: a low-fat, high carbohydrate diet; a low carbohydrate, high fat diet; or a walnut-rich, high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet.

Researchers took blood samples from the women at baseline and after 6 months, measuring triglycerides, total cholesterol, and LDL and HDL cholesterol.

Overall, all 3 arms of the study promoted similar weight loss. Women following the walnut-rich diet saw the most significant impact on cholesterol, with increases to HDL cholesterol and decreases to LDL cholesterol.

“Weight loss was similar across the diet groups, although insulin‐sensitive women lost more weight with a lower fat, higher carbohydrate diet versus a higher fat, lower carbohydrate diet. The walnut‐rich, higher fat diet resulted in the most favorable changes in lipid levels,“ they concluded.

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Le T, Flatt SW, Natarajan L, et al. Effects of diet composition and insulin resistance status on plasma lipid levels in a weight loss intervention in women. J Am Heart Assoc. 2016 January 25 [epub ahead of print]. doi: 10.1161/JAHA.115.002771.