New research suggests there may be a simple—and satisfying—way to help avoid diabetes in the first place.

A Spanish study reveals that eating this overlooked snack food may help you reduce metabolic risk markers. Things like insulin resistance and inflammation. Maybe even how your body processes the sugar you eat.

Researchers looked at 54 subjects for a little over eight months. For the first half of the study, subjects ate a control diet. About 55% of its calories came from carbohydrates and 30% came from fat. After a two-week washout period, they started the next diet. The numbers weren’t drastically different—50% of calories from carbs and 35% fat. But they were also eating about 60 grams of this tasty snack every day.1

By the end of the study, they found that this “snack” diet helped lower subjects’ glucose uptake by up to 78%. This means they had the same amount of cellular energy but with less fuel—sugar—required.

There’s just one thing about this study that you may wonder about…

The subjects were eating 100 pistachios a day. Yes, pistachios.

We admit it—100 a day may sound drastic. But they didn’t eat them all in one sitting. By the end of the day, the pistachios added up to about 25 grams of healthy fat, 12 grams of protein, 16 grams of carbs, and six grams of fiber… That’s 320 total calories.2

In other words, pistachios—even in high amounts—are a better snack choice than just about anything you’ll find in a box or wrapper.

They’re a rich source of antioxidants like gamma-tocopherol. It’s a form of vitamin E that often goes unnoticed. Pistachios provide you with quality protein and good fat. But they also give you minerals like manganese, calcium, magnesium, selenium, zinc, and copper.3 They taste pretty good too. Just be sure to skip roasted, salted, or flavored varieties. Find them raw and in the shell whenever possible.

Adding a handful here and there to your day may help keep your blood sugar in check. But pistachios are just one way to do this. Fenugreek is the ancient Indian seed that can help decrease fasting blood glucose levels by up to 40%. Even something as simple as a quick stroll after eating may help you dodge diabetes.

In Good Health,

Angela Salerno
Publisher, INH Health Watch

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References:
1http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/early/2014/08/07/dc14-1431.abstract
2http://www.fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/usda/pistachio-nuts
3http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/pistachio.html