Among the craziest studies I read recently year was feeding people with a single serving of Brazil nuts to see what it would do to the cholesterol levels of the healthy volunteers. They gave 10 men and women a single meal containing zero, 1, 4, or 8 Brazil nuts, and they found that the ingestion of just that single serving almost immediately improved the cholesterol levels. LDL, or also-called “bad” cholesterol levels in the blood, was significantly lowered starting just 9 hours after the ingestion of the nuts, and by no insignificant amount, approximately 20 points within a day. Even the drugs don’t work that fast. It takes statins about 4 days to have a significant effect.
But that is not even the craziest part.
The same researchers went back and measured their cholesterol level 5 days later, and then 30 days later. Now, have in mind that they weren’t eating Brazil nuts this whole …show more content…
Yet, when the intervention is harmless, cheap, easy, and healthy—eating 4 Brazil nuts a month—then, the burden of proof is kind of reversed. According to me, the reasonable default position is to do it until proven otherwise.
The researchers concluded that a single serving was sufficient “without producing kidney and liver toxicity.” What they are referring to is the high selenium content of Brazil nuts—which is so high that 4 eaten every day could actually bump us up against the tolerable daily limit for selenium, however it’s but not something we have to worry about if we are just eating 4 once a month.
Eating nuts every day does not appear to result in expected weight gain, so
But that is not even the craziest part.
The same researchers went back and measured their cholesterol level 5 days later, and then 30 days later. Now, have in mind that they weren’t eating Brazil nuts this whole …show more content…
Yet, when the intervention is harmless, cheap, easy, and healthy—eating 4 Brazil nuts a month—then, the burden of proof is kind of reversed. According to me, the reasonable default position is to do it until proven otherwise.
The researchers concluded that a single serving was sufficient “without producing kidney and liver toxicity.” What they are referring to is the high selenium content of Brazil nuts—which is so high that 4 eaten every day could actually bump us up against the tolerable daily limit for selenium, however it’s but not something we have to worry about if we are just eating 4 once a month.
Eating nuts every day does not appear to result in expected weight gain, so