Walnuts Can Help You Beat Stress

If you're feeling stressed out or you know that you're in for a bad day, you might want to eat a handful of walnuts to relieve the pressure

According to one study by researchers at Penn State University, a diet rich in walnuts and walnut oil may prepare the body to deal better with stress.

The researchers wanted to examine how walnuts and walnut oil, which contain polyunsaturated fats, influence blood pressure at rest and under stress. That's because people who have an exaggerated biological response to stress are at higher risk of heart disease. According to the researchers, they wanted to find out if omega 3-fatty acids from plant sources would blunt cardiovascular responses to stress.

In the study 22 healthy adults with elevated LDL cholesterol followed three different diets for six weeks each. The participants were subjected to stress either by giving a speech or immersing a foot in cold water. The results, published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, showed that when participants were following a diet that included walnuts and walnut oil, their blood pressure and stress responses were lower.

The "average" American diet does not include any nuts on a daily basis and the diet found to be effective to reduce the stress reaction included about 9 whole walnuts as an average serving. That may be all it takes for you to feel the calming effects.

A quarter cup of walnuts provides over 90% of the recommended daily value of omega-3 fats. Previous studies had already shown that omega-3 fatty acids like the alpha linolenic acid found in walnuts and flax seeds, can reduce LDL (the so-called "bad") cholesterol, and may also reduce inflammation.

Walnuts are rich in healthy fats, dietary fiber, minerals, vitamins, antioxidants and phytosterols, and have long been associated with improved heart health. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration allows walnut providers to make the health claim that "eating 1.5 ounces per day of walnuts as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce the risk of heart disease." 

Besides its beneficial effects on blood pressure and inflammation, walnuts have also been shown to be an excellent source of antioxidants, help to prevent gallstones, improve sleep by boosting melatonin, protect bone health and prevent weight gain.

Now this study points out that walnuts and walnut oil reduce blood pressure during stressful periods. And since we can't completely avoid all the stresses in our lives, it's good to know that such a simple and convenient snack could help us deal with the pressure.

Amazingly, the walnut actually resembles the organ it nourishes: the brain. 

Sayer Ji, founder of GreenMedInfo.com, discussed this amazing resemblence in a previous article: "Why Walnut Resembles the Brain It Nourishes":

While commonly viewed as mere coincidence, it is difficult for me to acknowledge the exquisite design of the walnut, whose eerily skull-like shell encompasses the fatty-acid rich, bihemispheric "brain" of the nut, without opening myself to the possibility that mother nature wove metaphor, meaning, and a high degree of co-evolutionary non-arbitrariness into the natural order of things. Walnuts are well known to have a disproportionately higher amount of the very fatty acids, specifically the EPA/DHA omega 3 fatty acid substrate alpha linolenic acid that the brain requires for optimal health. Moreover, walnuts contain well-known neuroprotective compounds, such as gallic acid, vitamin E isomers, melatonin, folate, and polyphenols. Coincidence, or mother nature providing a clue so obvious we would have to be nuts (or nut deficient) in order to overlook it?"

For more research on the health benefits of walnuts, view our database on the topic.