Browse evidence-based analysis of health-related claims and assertions
Eating walnuts can help lower bad cholesterol (LDL) in adults by about 5.7 points on average, and this seems to work whether your cholesterol is already normal or high.
Eating walnuts might help lower your cholesterol, especially if it's already high or if you're at risk for heart problems. Think of walnuts as a tasty snack that could be good for your heart.
Eating a diet with lots of walnuts and cashews — making up 20% of your daily calories — may boost your body's antioxidant power more than a standard healthy diet if you have metabolic syndrome.
Eating a healthy, balanced diet for about three months can boost your body's natural antioxidants more than taking special nut supplements, especially if you have metabolic syndrome.
If you have metabolic syndrome and eat a healthy diet, adding a lot of walnuts or cashews every day for two months doesn’t seem to boost your body’s antioxidant levels any more than the healthy diet alone—even though nuts are packed with antioxidants.
Most adults can stick to eating about a handful of walnuts every day for six months without special diet coaching—and we can prove they’re doing it using both what they say and blood tests.
People lost more weight when they stopped eating walnuts than they gained when they started eating them — and this weird difference might be because their bodies or habits changed in response to the nuts.
Eating a small handful of walnuts every day for six months might slightly increase your BMI, but doesn’t seem to change other aspects of your body like muscle or fat in a noticeable way.
If adults eat 35 grams of walnuts every day while living their normal lives, they end up eating about 133 extra calories per day — but they don’t gain as much weight as you’d expect because they naturally eat a bit less of other foods.
If you eat about a handful of walnuts every day for six months, you might gain only half a pound — way less than you'd expect from the extra calories, which probably means you end up eating less of other foods without realizing it.
Eating walnuts might help your heart by reducing inflammation, improving blood vessel health, and lowering stress on your body's cells.
Eating walnuts might help adults lose weight and improve body measurements like waist size.
Eating walnuts and healthy fats might help improve your cholesterol levels compared to typical low-fat or average American diets.
Eating walnuts might help adults lose body fat, maintain muscle, and improve their overall body composition, which could be good for their metabolism.
If someone with metabolic syndrome already has pretty low 'bad' cholesterol, eating lots of walnuts or cashews might not lower it much more — so it could look like the nuts aren't helping, even if they're healthy.
If people with metabolic syndrome don't lose weight while eating more walnuts or cashews, they might not see improvements in their cholesterol or inflammation—even if the nuts could help.
If White South African adults with metabolic syndrome eat a handful of cashews every day for two months, their blood sugar levels go up slightly, but other markers show their overall sugar control hasn’t really gotten worse.
If you have metabolic syndrome and eat a lot of walnuts or cashews every day for two months without losing weight, it probably won't improve your cholesterol, blood pressure, or other key health numbers much.
Eating walnuts every day for six weeks doesn’t seem to boost your body’s overall antioxidant levels if you're a healthy older adult who already eats well.
Eating about a handful of walnuts every day for six weeks might help lower bad cholesterol and fats in the blood for healthy older people, but more walnuts don’t seem to make the effect stronger.
Eating a small or medium handful of walnuts can quickly boost your body's natural antioxidants within an hour, at least in older adults who are otherwise healthy.
Eating a handful of walnuts every day for six weeks might boost vitamin B6 levels in older adults who are otherwise healthy.
Eating a handful of walnuts every day for six weeks might boost healthy fats in your blood, especially as you get older.