Nuts and Brains

I came across a study of older Chinese people relating brain health to consumption of nuts.  The study was conducted by researchers at the University of South Australia, and it focused on a population of 4,822 Chinese people, age 55 and older.  The study was published in Journal of Nutrition, Health & Aging.

What did it find?  It found that consuming more than 10 grams of nuts per day led to improved mental functioning and thinking, and better memory and reasoning.

A couple of things I noted:

• The study did not attempt to correlate the memory improvements with AD.  
• Change in cognition was measured during telephone interviews.  (4,822 is a lot of people, and China is a big place.)
• I looked at the raw data and saw that the controlled for sex, urban/non-urban living, education, obesity, income, hypertension, and smoking.  They did not control for exercise, which I think is important.

The study said that peanuts may bestow the highest health benefit of all the nuts (although the peanut is not a true nut).  I had always read that peanuts won't hurt you, but it is the tree nuts (almonds, walnuts, etc.) that convey the real benefit, not peanuts.  In Diet for the Mind, Martha Clare Morris considered peanuts equal to tree nuts in their benefit to brain health.

I felt good about this, because I ate a bunch of peanuts today.  I snack on almonds and Walnuts all day, but I normally avoid peanuts.  I didn't think they helped my brain, and they seemed to add more weight on me than tree nuts.  So I was feeling guilty about it...

It wasn't clear to me if the Chinese government participated in the study at all.  However, I heard at a seminar I attended that China is spending almost as much as the US on Alzheimer's research.  Aside from an unhealthy lifestyle common in its population (smoking, high blood pressure, obesity), China's population policies have left aging Chinese citizens with very few children to care for them in their old age.  So China has a huge stake in the search for effective treatments for AD.