I'm not out of the woods ... but what's with them nuts, anyway?

So I'm off of the antibiotics, but an ultrasound and a CT scan tell us that I still have two large kidney stone fragments to deal with.  One is in the ureter and will likely come out when they remove the stent.  (Yes, there's still a stent in there.)  The stent is sized to allow the fragments to pass around it while urine passes through it.  The largest of the two fragments is trapped between the outer wall of the stent and the inner wall of the ureter.  The other fragment is still stuck up in my right kidney.

So Wednesday I go back in for surgery with general anesthesia.  The plan is to pull the stent and then send up a laser to zap the fragment that's still in the kidney.  Then they'll put a stent back in to allow the fragments to pass.  What's on my mind is the possibility that more invasive procedures invite more infection.

This all began with over-consumption of spinach and almonds.  Both are good for your brain, but both also contain lots of oxalate.  The oxalate is the material of the type of stone that got me.  So my doctor said don't eat that stuff.  I stopped both, but with some substitutions.  Broccoli, asparagus, cucumber, tomato, blueberries, strawberries and avocado are reasonably low in oxalate, and so these go into much of the vegetable portion of my diet.  

But what about the nuts?  Is the oxalate problem the same for all nuts, or is it peculiar to almonds?  From what I read, almonds are a particular problem for oxalate, but walnuts are not.  I like to mix walnuts with blueberries and eat them like a dessert.  I feel comfortable with this.

But how good are walnuts for brain health?  Are they as good as almonds?  We know that tree nuts are good for the brain.  What does the research say about almonds vs. walnuts?  Turns out there's a brand new study to help answer this question.

The study is called "Impact of Nut Consumption on Cognition across the Lifespan," and it was published in the journal Nutrients.  Here's a summary article from News-Medical.net.

What the researchers set out to do was measure the influence on cognition of nut consumption prenatally, on younger people, and on the elderly.  They did this by performing a meta-analysis of 15 peer-reviewed papers on the influence of nut consumption on cognition.  The analysis also sought to discern which nuts had the most positive effect.  They found that nuts in general were helpful, but walnuts were the best.  However, not all the papers found a positive effect from nut consumption, and the effect was sometimes weak in those that did.  I didn't see any explicit mention of almonds at all.  They concluded:

"While limited and inconclusive, available evidence suggests a possible role for nuts in the maintenance of cognitive health and prevention of cognitive decline in individuals across the lifespan, particularly in older adults and those at higher risk.  Walnuts, as a rich source of the plant-based polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acid alpha-linolenic acid, are the nut type most promising for cognitive health.  Given the limited definitive evidence available to date, especially regarding cognitive health biomarkers and hard outcomes, future studies are needed to better elucidate the impact of nuts on the maintenance of cognitive health, as well as the prevention and management of cognitive decline and dementia, including Alzheimer disease."

So it appears that walnuts are even better for brain health than almonds.