A Nutty Way to Improve Cholesterol in Diabetes - Trustworthy, Physician-Reviewed Information from WebMD

According to "I-Medicine Sutra" Walnuts is good for the Brain; Kidney; Bladder in our body, it have been used as a herbs to heal the disease of these organs.

For over 6,000 years these knowledge have passed on. There are Walnuts paste or congee for breakfast, Walnuts Drinks for refreashing, Walnuts as condiments.

My experience is that when I was having the Bladder & Kidney weakness, frequent to pass urine, my late mom make the Walnuts Milk with ginger as a drink for me for 3 months . It works.

A Nutty Way to Improve Cholesterol in Diabetes
Eating a Healthy Diet Including Walnuts May Reduce Type 2 Diabetes Risks By Jennifer Warner
Reviewed By Brunilda Nazario, MD
on Friday, December 03, 2004
WebMD Medical News

Dec. 3, 2004 -- Incorporating a handful of walnuts into a healthy diet may help people with type 2 diabetes improve their cholesterol levels and reduce their risk of heart disease, a new study suggests.

Researchers found including walnuts as part of a balanced, low-fat diet helped people with diabetes increase their "good" HDL cholesterol levels while lowering their "bad" LDL cholesterol levels.

But don't reach for the nut bowl just yet. Experts say merely adding walnuts to an already unhealthy diet won't necessarily undo the damage. Instead, they say it's important to substitute walnuts for other sources of fat in the diet in order to achieve the best results.

Walnuts contain an omega-3 fatty acid called alpha-linolenic acid or ALA, which is similar to the omega-3 fatty acids found in fatty fish, such as salmon. Previous studies have shown that alpha-linolenic acid has a number of heart-healthy effects, including improving cholesterol levels.

Researchers say this is one of the first studies to look at the effects of the fatty acids found in walnuts in people with type 2 diabetes.

Walnuts May Aid in Diabetes Management

In the study, which appears in the December issue of Diabetes Care, researchers looked at the effects of three different diets on cholesterol levels in older adults with type 2 diabetes.

Nearly 60 men and women were divided into three groups that followed three different diet plans: a low-fat diet, a modified-fat diet, or a modified-fat diet that included eight to 10 walnuts per day (30 grams). All of the diets were based on eating a variety of whole foods, such as cereals and breads, fruits and vegetables, lean meat, fish, and low-fat dairy products with no more than 30% of total calories from fat.

After six months of the diet, the results showed that the people who ate the modified-fat diet including walnuts experienced a bigger increase in "good" HDL cholesterol levels than those in the other two diets. People who ate walnuts as part of a balanced diet also experienced an average 10% reduction in "bad" LDL cholesterol levels.

Researchers say the study suggests that incorporating walnuts into a healthy diet may be an easy way for people with type 2 diabetes to get the right kinds of fats and fatty acids into their diet.

"Walnuts are an easy and convenient way of getting polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids into the diet. And they're particularly important for people with diabetes because they're a simple snack food, which is an integral component of managing the diet in diabetes," says researcher Linda Tapsell, PhD, of the University of Wollongong in Australia, in a news release. read More....
A Nutty Way to Improve Cholesterol in Diabetes - Trustworthy, Physician-Reviewed Information from WebMD