Study: Almonds Improve Overall Diet Quality

A moderate intake of almonds improves the diet quality of adults and their young children, according to a new study.

Researchers studied 29 pairs of parents (average age of 35) and their children (between 3 and 6 years of age) for 14 weeks. In the study, the children were encouraged to consume 0.5 oz of almond butter daily and parents were given 1.5 oz of almonds per day for 3 weeks, followed by 4-week washouts where participants resumed their typical diet, including additional snacks.
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Parents completed daily questionnaires of stool frequency and compliance with nut intake. The Gastrointestinal Symptom Response Scale was administered weekly and participants provided stools and saliva for microbiota and secretory immunoglobulin A analysis.

Researchers noted that there were only minimal changes in gastrointestinal symptoms and no changes in stool frequency with almond intervention. No differences were observed for immune markers.

However, the moderate intake of almonds did improve diet quality and modulated microbiota composition.

The complete study is published in the January issue of Nutrition Research.

—Pooja Shah

Reference:

Burns AM, Zitt MA, Rowe CC, et al. Diet quality improves for parents and children when almonds are incorporated into their daily diet: a randomized, crossover study. Nutrition Res. 2016;36(1):80.