Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-ws8qp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T05:21:35.166Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Health benefits of nuts: potential role of antioxidants

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 April 2007

Rune Blomhoff*
Affiliation:
Department of Nutrition, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
Monica H. Carlsen
Affiliation:
Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55454-1015, USA
Lene Frost Andersen
Affiliation:
Department of Nutrition, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
David R. Jacobs Jr
Affiliation:
Department of Nutrition, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55454-1015, USA
*
*Corresponding author: Rune Blomhoff, fax +47 22 85 13 96, email rune.blomhoff@medisin.uio.no
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

A diet rich in fruits, vegetables and minimally refined cereals is associated with lower risk for chronic degenerative diseases. Since oxidative stress is common in chronic degenerative disease, it has been assumed that dietary antioxidants may explain this protective effect. Every dietary plant contains numerous types of antioxidants with different properties. Many of these antioxidants cooperate in oxidative stress reduction in plants, and we hypothesize that many different antioxidants may also be needed for the proper protection of animal cells. To test this hypothesis, it is useful to identify dietary plants with high total antioxidant content. Several nuts are among the dietary plants with the highest content of total antioxidants. Of the tree nuts, walnuts, pecans and chestnuts have the highest contents of antioxidants. Walnuts contain more than 20 mmol antioxidants per 100 g, mostly in the walnut pellicles. Peanuts (a legume) also contribute significantly to dietary intake of antioxidants. These data are in accordance with our present extended analysis of an earlier report on nut intake and death attributed to various diseases in the Iowa Women's Health Study. We observed that the hazard ratio for total death rates showed a U-shaped association with nut/peanut butter consumption. Hazard ratio was 0·89 (CI =0·81–0·97) and 0·81 (CI =0·75–0·88) for nut/peanut butter intake once per week and 1–4 times per week, respectively. Death attributed to cardiovascular and coronary heart diseases showed strong and consistent reductions with increasing nut/peanut butter consumption. Further studies are needed to clarify whether antioxidants contribute to this apparent beneficial health effect of nuts.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Nutrition Society 2006

References

Albanes, D, Heinonen, OP, Taylor, PR et al. (1996) Alpha-Tocopherol and beta-carotene supplements and lung cancer incidence in the alpha-tocopherol, beta-carotene cancer prevention study: effects of base-line characteristics and study compliance. J Natl Cancer Inst 88, 15601570.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Anderson, KJ, Teuber, SS, Gobeille, A, Cremin, P, Waterhouse, AL & Steinberg, FM (2001) Walnut polyphenolics inhibit in vitro human plasma and LDL oxidation. J Nutr 131, 28372842.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beckman, KB & Ames, BN (1998) The free radical theory of aging matures. Physiol Rev 78, 547581.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Benzie, IFF & Strain, JJ (1996) The ferric reducing ability of plasma (FRAP) as a measure of “antioxidant power”: the FRAP assay. Anal Biochem 239, 7076.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bjelakovic, G, Nikolova, D, Simonetti, RG & Gluud, C (2004) Antioxidant supplements for prevention of gastrointestinal cancers: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet 364, 12191228.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blomhoff, R (2005) Dietary antioxidants and cardiovascular disease. Curr Opin Lipidol 16, 4754.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brigelius-Flohe, R, Kelly, FJ, Salonen, JT, Neuzil, J, Zingg, JM & Azzi, A (2002) The European perspective on vitamin E: current knowledge and future research. Am J Clin Nutr 76, 703716.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Buettner, GR (1993) The pecking order of free radicals and antioxidants: lipid peroxidation, α-tocopherol and ascorbate. Arch Biochem Biophys 300, 535543.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cao, G, Alessio, HM, Cutler, RG (1993) Oxygen-radical absorbance capacity assay for antioxidants. Free Rad Biol Med 14, 303311.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chen, C-Y, Milbury, PE, Lapsley, K & Blumberg, JB (2005) Flavonoids from almond skins are bioavailable and act synergistically with vitamins C and E to enhance hamster and human LDL resistance to oxidation. J Nutr 135, 13661373.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, DA (2004) Carotenoids in health and disease: recent scientific evaluations, research recommendations and the consumer. J Nutr. 134, 221224.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dalton, TP, Chen, Y, Schneider, SN, Nebert, DW & Shertzer, HG (2004) Genetically altered mice to evaluate glutathione homeostasis in health and disease. Free Radic Biol Med. 37, 15111526.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davidson, A (1999) The Oxford Companion to Food Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
DeLange, RJ & Glazer, AN (1989) Phycoerythrin fluorescence-based assay for peroxyl radicals: a screen for biologically relevant protective agents. Anal Biochem 177, 300306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dragland, S, Senoo, H, Wake, K, Holte, K & Blomhoff, R (2003) Several Culinary and Medicinal Herbs Are Important Sources of Dietary Antioxidants. J Nutr 133, 12861290.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Durak, I, Köksal, I, Kaçmaz, M, Büyükkoçak, S, Çimen, BMY & Öztürk, HS (1999) Hazelnut supplementation enhances plasma antioxidant potential and lowers plasma cholesterol levels. Clinica Chimica Acta 284, 113115.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eidelman, RS, Hollar, D, Hebert, PR, Lamas, GA & Hennekens, CH (2004) Randomized trials of vitamin E in the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease. Arch Intern Med 164, 15521556.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ellsworth, JL, Kushi, LH & Folsom, AR (2001) Frequent nut intake and risk of death from coronary heart disease and all causes in postmenopausal women: the Iowa Women's Health Study. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis 11, 372377.Google ScholarPubMed
Etminan, M, Fitzgerald, JM, Gleave, M & Hambers, K (2005) Intake of Selenium in the Prevention of Prostate Cancer: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Cancer Causes Control 16, 11251131.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fahey, JW, Zhang, Y & Talalay, P (1997) Broccoli sprouts: an exceptionally rich source of inducers of enzymes that protect against chemical carcinogens. Proc Natl Acad Sci 94, 1036710372.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Frison-Norrie, & Sporns, P (2002) Identification and quantification of flavonol glycosides in almond seedcoats using MALDI-TOF MS. J Afric Food Chem 50, 2782.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gutteridge, JM & Halliwell, B (2000) Free radicals and antioxidants in the year 2000. A historical look to the future. Ann N Y Acad Sci 899, 136147.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Halliwell, B (1996) Antioxidants in human health and disease. Annu Rev Nutr 16, 3350.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Halvorsen, BL, Holte, K, Myhrstad, MC et al. (2002) A systematic screening of total antioxidants in dietary plants. J Nutr 132, 461471.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hatipoglu, A, Kanbagli, O, Balkan, J, Kucuk, M, Cevikbas, U, Aykac-Toker, G, Berkkan, H & Uysal, M (2004) Hazelnut oil administration reduces aortic cholesterol accumulation and lipid peroxides in the plasma, liver, and aorta of rabbits fed a high-cholesterol diet. Biosci Biotechnol Biochem 68, 20502057.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hyson, DA, Schneeman, BO & Davis, PA (2002) Almonds and almond oil have similar effects on plasma lipids and LDL oxidation in healthy men and women. J Nutr 132, 703707.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Iwamoto, M, Imaizumi, K, Sato, M, Hirooka, Y, Sakai, K, Takeshita, A & Kono, M (2002) Serum lipid profiles in Japanese women and men during consumption of walnuts. Eur J Clin Nutr 56, 629637.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jacobs, DR Jr & Steffen, LM (2003) Nutrients, foods, and dietary patterns as exposures in research: a framework for food synergy. Am J Clin Nutr 78, 508513.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jiang, R, Jacobs, DR, Mayer-Davis, E, Szklo, M, Herrington, D, Jenny, N, Kronmal, R & Barr, RG (2006) Nut and Seed Consumption and Inflammatory Markers in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. Am J Epidemiol 163, 222231.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Joseph, JA, Shukitt-Hale, B, Denisova, NA, Bielinski, D, Martin, A, McEwen, JJ & Bickford, PC (1999) Reversals of age-related declines in neuronal signal transduction, cognitive and motor behavioral deficits with diets supplemented with blueberry, spinach or strawberry dietary supplementation. J Neurosci 19, 81148121.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lindsay, DG & Astley, SB (2002) European research on the functional effects of dietary antioxidants – EUROFEDA. Mol Aspects Med 23, 138.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lou, H, Yuan, H, Yamazaki, Y, Sasaki, T & Oka, S (2001) Alklaoids and flavonoids from peanut skin. Planta Med 67, 345349.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McEligot, AJ, Yang, SMeyskens, FL Jr (2005) Redox regulation by intrinsic species and extrinsic nutrients in normal and cancer cells. Annu Rev Nutr 25, 261295.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McCord, JM (2000) The evolution of free radicals and oxidative stress. Am J Med 108, 652659.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miller, NJ & Rice-Evans, CA (1996) Spectrophotometric determination of antioxidant activity. Redox Rep 2, 161168.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moskaug, JO, Carlsen, H, Myhrstad, MC & Blomhoff, R (2005) Polyphenols and glutathione synthesis regulation. Am J Clin Nutr 81, 277283.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mukuddem-Petersen, J, Oosthuizen, W & Jerling, JC (2005) A systematic review of the effects of nuts on blood lipid profiles in humans. J Nutr 135, 20822089.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Omenn, GS, Goodman, GE, Thornquist, MD, et al. (1996 a) Risk factors for lung cancer and for intervention effects in CARET, the Beta-Carotene and Retinol Efficacy Trial. J Natl Cancer Inst 88, 15501559.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Omenn, GS, Goodman, GE, Thornquist, MD, et al. (1996 b) Effects of a combination of beta carotene and vitamin A on lung cancer and cardiovascular disease. N Engl J Med 334, 11501155.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Packer, L, Weber, SU & Rimbach, G (2001) Molecular aspects of alpha-tocotrienol antioxidant action and cell signalling. J Nutr 131, 369S373S.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rapola, JM, Virtamo, J, Ripatti, S, Huttunen, JK, Albanes, D, Taylor, PR & Heinonen, OP (1997) Randomised trial of alpha-tocopherol and beta-carotene supplements on incidence of major coronary events in men with previous myocardial infraction. Lancet 349, 17151720.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ros, E, Núñez, I, Pérez-Heras, A, Serra, M, Gilabert, R, Casals, E & Deulofeu, R (2004) A walnut diet improves endothelial function in hypercholesterolemic subjects: a randomized crossover trial. Circulation 109, 16091614.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sang, S, Lapsley, K, Jeong, WS, lachance, PA, Ho, CT & Rosen, RT (2002) Antioxidative phenolic compounds isolated from almond skins (Prunus amygdalus Batsch). J Agric Food Chem 50, 24592463.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Selverstone, Valentine J, Doucette, PA & Zittin, Potter S (2005) Copper-zinc superoxide dismutase and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Annu Rev Biochem 74, 563593.Google Scholar
Shekelle, PG, Morton, SC & Jungvig, LK (2004) Effect of supplemental vitamin E for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease. J Gen Intern Med 19, 380389.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sies, H (1997) Oxidative stress: oxidants and antioxidants. Exp Physiol 82, 291295.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stanner, SA, Hughes, J, Kelly, CN & Buttriss, J (2004) A review of the epidemiological evidence for the ‘antioxidant hypothesis’. Public Health Nutr 7, 407422.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Svilaas, A, Sakhi, AK, Andersen, LF, Svilaas, T, Strom, EC, Jacobs, DR Jr, Ose, L & Blomhoff, R (2004) Intakes of antioxidants in coffee, wine, and vegetables are correlated with plasma carotenoids in humans. J Nutr 134, 562567.Google ScholarPubMed
Talalay, P (2000) Chemoprotection against cancer by induction of phase 2 enzymes. Biofactors 12, 511.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Trevisan, MT, Pfundstein, B, Haubner, R, Wurtele, G, Spiegelhalder, B, Bartsch, H & Owen, RW (2006) Characterization of alkyl phenols in cashew (Anacardium occidentale) products and assay of their antioxidant capacity. Food Chem Toxicol 44, 188–97.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wu, X, Beecher, GR, Holden, JM, Haytowitz, DB, Gebhardt, SE & Prior, RL (2004) Lipophilic and hydrophilic antioxidant capacities of common foods in the United States. J Agric Food Chem 52, 40264037.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zambon, D, Sabate, J, Munoz, S, Campero, B, Casals, E, Merlos, M, Laguna, JC & Ros, E (2000) Substituting walnuts for monounsaturated fat improves the serum lipid profile of hypercholesterolemic men and women. A randomized crossover trial. Ann Intern Med 132, 538546.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed