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Evidence-minded articles on the nutrition and health benefits of everyday ingredients — vegetables, fruits, seafood, spices and more.

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All ingredients | Ingredient Health Benefits

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Evidence

All Strong evidence1 Moderate evidence9 Early research3 Nutrition data2

15 ingredients

Nuts & seeds — See the category page

Nuts & seeds

Moderate evidence

Pecans

The 2021 trial did something unusual: it ran an add arm and a substitute arm at once. Both lowered total cholesterol, LDL, triglycerides and apolipoprotein B, while the control did not move. But the dose was 68 g a day and each arm held 16–18 people.

Nuts & seeds

Early research

Macadamia nuts

A 2008 controlled-feeding trial lowered total and LDL cholesterol significantly. A 2023 free-living trial moved nothing significantly. The decisive difference between them was not the macadamias but what they displaced.

Nuts & seeds

Early research

Pine nuts

The claim that pine nuts suppress appetite rests on one 2008 trial. But what that trial gave people was not pine nuts — it was 3 g of fatty acids extracted from them, in a capsule — and it never measured how much anyone actually ate.

Nuts & seeds

Early research

Hazelnut

A network meta-analysis of 34 randomised trials in 1,677 people ranked pistachio first for triglycerides, LDL and total cholesterol, with hazelnut losing to pistachio on triglycerides and total cholesterol and to walnut on triglycerides. The authors noted the low quality of the evidence. Hazelnut's real strength is not lipids but 15 mg of vitamin E and 6.18 mg of manganese.

Nuts & seeds

Moderate evidence

Cashew

A meta-analysis pooling 392 randomised trial participants found no significant change in total cholesterol, LDL, HDL or triglycerides. Only systolic pressure fell, by 3.39 mmHg (95% CI −6.13 to −0.65). Not all nuts are the same food.

Nuts & seeds

Moderate evidence

Chia seeds

17.8 g of ALA and 34.4 g of fibre per 100 g. But ALA converts to EPA at 5–8% and to DHA at under 1%.

Nuts & seeds

Moderate evidence

Pistachios

2,900 µg of lutein and zeaxanthin per 100 g, against 1 µg in almonds and 9 in walnuts. Twelve randomised trials show LDL falling — by 3.82 mg/dL.

Nuts & seeds

Moderate evidence

Brazil nut

Within USDA's own data the selenium figure ranges from 280 to 1,920 µg per 100 g, a sevenfold spread. It tracks the selenium in the soil the tree grew in.

Nuts & seeds

Strong evidence

Peanuts

Across three cohorts of 206,000 people, mortality risk ran 17–21 % lower. Peanut butter showed no such association.

Nuts & seeds

Moderate evidence

Pumpkin seeds

550 mg of magnesium and 7.6 mg of zinc per 100 g. The blood-pressure effect of magnesium, though, showed up only in people who already had hypertension.

Nuts & seeds

Moderate evidence

Flaxseed

19.4 g of omega-3 (ALA) and 23.1 g of fibre per 100 g. But swallowed whole, the hard hull means most of it passes through undigested.

Nuts & seeds

Nutrition data

Sunflower seeds

35.2 mg of vitamin E per 100 g — a handful covers 70 % of the daily requirement. That handful is also 175 kcal.

Nuts & seeds

Moderate evidence

Almond

Thirty grams of almonds carries 7.7 mg of vitamin E — half the 15 mg adult daily requirement. The reason all those calories do not show up on the scale is that the fat is not fully absorbed.

Nuts & seeds

Nutrition data

Sesame seed

Whole sesame carries 975 mg of calcium per 100 g, far ahead of milk. Hull it and the figure drops to around 60 mg.

Nuts & seeds

Moderate evidence

Walnut

Walnuts carry 9.1 g of ALA per 100 g, an order of magnitude beyond other nuts. But the rate at which ALA converts to EPA and DHA is very low.