Island Fitness (206)842-5720 | Bringing Strength, Flexibility & Balance to Bainbridge Island

FITNESS TIPS : Add Some Crunch Factor
Does your bowl of fruit salad, steamy oatmeal, or creamy yogurt need a little more oomph?

Topic: Menu Planning
return to fitness tips listings

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

For extra texture and a heart-health boost, sprinkle on some toasted walnuts. You'll add a nice crunch quality and also help lower your cholesterol. Just 8 to 13 nuts a day may be all you need in order to drop your LDL (that's the bad stuff) by 6 percent.

Helping Your Heart Two Ways
When men and women with moderately high cholesterol replaced some of the monounsaturated fat in their diets with as few as 8 to 13 walnuts a day, their cholesterol dropped and their blood vessels dilated more readily -- allowing blood to flow more freely through arteries that supply the heart and brain.

Good and Plenty
What's in walnuts that keeps your arteries in the clear? Quite a lot -- like cell-protecting antioxidants, inflammation-fighting fatty acids, and healthy amounts of L-arginine -- an amino acid that helps control blood pressure.

SOURCES: A walnut diet improves endothelial function in hypercholesterolemic subjects: a randomized crossover trial. Ros, E., Nunez, I., Perez-Heras, A., Serra, M., Gilabert, R., Casals, E., Deulofeu, R., Circulation 2004 Apr 6;109(13):1609-1614.

return to fitness tips listings