Eat Your Nuts

A new study shows that eating walnuts at the end of a meal may help to reduce the damage to the arteries caused by fatty foods.

The study, reported by the BBC, was conducted at Barcelona's Hospital Clinico. The results of the study imply that eating around eight walnuts a day is sufficient to reduce the hardening of the arteries and keep them flexible.

Walnuts are even more beneficial than olive oil, according to the study.

It is well documented that walnuts contain arginine, which is an amino acid used by the body to produce nitric oxide. In addition, they contain helpful antioxidants and alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), an omega-3 fatty acid.

Remember, you cannot just eat whatever you want and then follow it by eating walnuts. This would be similar to the old saying: "I ate a Snickers bar and cancelled it out by drinking a Diet Coke." To the contrary, eating walnuts will not "cancel out" your bad food choices. Better instead to make walnuts a part of an otherwise generally healthy diet, limiting your intake of life-damaging saturated fats.