Association of nut consumption with total and cause-specific mortality
In plain English
Nearly 119,000 nurses and health professionals were followed for up to 30 years, recording how often they ate nuts and when they died. Mortality fell in a clear dose-response: eating nuts once a week was linked to 11% lower death rates, and seven or more times a week to 20% lower. The association held across heart disease, cancer and respiratory death after adjusting for the usual confounders.
Why it matters
Eating nuts 7+ times a week was associated with 20% lower total mortality.
Informs: Heart Disease·Life Expectancy
Provenance
- Design
- Prospective cohort
- Sample size (n)
- 118,962
- Follow-up
- 30 years
- Peer-reviewed
- Yes
- Replications
- 2
- Funding
- Public / academic
- Funders
- US National Institutes of Health
- Institutions
- Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women's Hospital
decades.plus score
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Caveats
Observational — frequent nut-eaters were also leaner, more active and less likely to smoke, and although these were adjusted for, residual confounding can't be excluded. Part of the funding analysis used grants from a tree-nut council, which is disclosed, though the cohorts are publicly funded.
