Walnuts lower cholesterol, are anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and ... they also improve mood by counteracting depression. This is the result of a study published a few months ago in the scientific journal Nutrients by an American team at the UCLA School of Medicine in Los Angeles (Arab et al, Nutrients, Feb 2019).
Scientists analyzed the dietary habits of 26,656 people between 2005 and 2014. What has been discovered is that those who consumed nuts such as pecans, macadamias, walnuts and cashew showed less depressive symptoms than those who did not consume this type of food at all. Not only that, consumers of dried fruit also had more energy, showed more interests and higher concentration. Is all dried fruit equally beneficial? Not exactly. Indeed, based on the same research, walnuts showed the best results compared to other types of dried fruit. This can be explained by considering that walnuts differ from other types of oily fruit because they have a high antioxidant content and they also contain substances that act synergistically, such as melatonin, which is important for regulating sleep wake rhythm, vitamin E and polyphenols, with an anti-inflammatory action also able to improve cognitive functioning and mood, and fatty acids that can act by modifying the brain structure.
In short, here is another study that brings to light the connection between the gut and the brain, between what we eat and the health of the mind. In addition to this, the study we presented reinforces the results of a previous study, published in 2016 in the journal Nutrients (Pribis, 2016). In this research it emerged that the intake of walnuts, included in a banana bread dough, for 8 weeks improved the mood by 28% in young adults!
