Consumption of Nuts at Midlife and Healthy Aging in Women

Abstract

Background. Nut consumption may reduce age-related diseases and lead to better health and well-being in aging. Many conditions of aging develop over decades, and thus earlier lifestyle factors may particularly influence later health. Methods. In 1998 and 2002, we administered food frequency questionnaires to assess nut consumption (peanuts, walnuts, and other nuts and peanut butter) in women in the Nurses’ Health Study in their 50 s/early 60 s. In 2012, those who survived beyond 65 years with no chronic diseases, no reported memory impairment, no physical disabilities, and intact mental health were considered “healthy agers.” We used multivariable logistic regression to estimate odds ratios for healthy versus usual aging, controlled for sociodemographic, behavioral, dietary, and other potential confounding factors. Results. Of 33,931 participants at midlife, 16% became “healthy agers.” After age adjustment, we observed a significant association between total nut consumption at midlife and higher odds of healthy aging, with strongest associations observed excluding peanut butter (odds ratio (OR) = 1.46, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.32–1.62, ≥3 servings/week versus none). Findings were attenuated after further control for covariates, including overall diet quality (OR = 1.14, 95% CI 1.02–1.28, P trend = 0.05). For nut types, we found statistically significantly higher odds of healthy aging across peanuts, walnuts, and other nuts after age adjustment. After full control for confounders, only walnut consumption remained associated with healthy aging (P trend = 0.0001); for example, the OR was 1.20 (95% CI 1.00–1.44) for ≥2 servings/week versus none. Conclusions. Women consuming nuts at midlife have a greater likelihood of overall health and well-being at older ages. Nut consumption may represent a simple intervention to explore and promote healthy aging.

Walnut consumption and health outcomes with public health relevance—a systematic review of cohort studies and randomized controlled trials published from 2017 to present

“…Freitas-Simoes and colleagues reported a significant positive association between walnut consumption and odds of healthy aging (defined as surviving beyond 65 years of age with no history of 11 chronic diseases, no self-reported memory impairment, no physical disabilities, and intact mental health) among participants of the NHS (odds ratio [OR] = 1.20, 95% CI 1.00–1.44, comparing ≥2 servings/week vs no walnut consumption, P for trend = 0.0001, fully adjusted model). 104 Higher consumption of walnuts was significantly associated with lower odds of physical function impairment (measured using the physical function domain of the SF-36 questionnaire, which assesses physical limitations in performing daily activities) among participants of the HPFS (OR = 0.80, 95% CI 0.68–0.94, comparing ≥2 servings/week vs never or <1 serving/month, P for trend = 0.01, fully adjusted model). 99 Finally, secondary analysis of the Health and Retirement Study and Health Care and Nutrition Study reported an association between walnut consumption and cognitive function.…”

“…The characteristics of the cohort studies can be seen in Table S15 in the Supporting Information online. Cohort studies were conducted in the United States (Nurses’ Health Study [NHS], Nurses’ Health Study II [NHS II], Health Professionals’ Follow-up study [HPFS], 33 , 66 , 99 , 103 , 104 Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults [CARDIA] study, 102 Health and Retirement and Health Care Nutrition studies 101 ) Iran (Golestan Cohort Study, Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study 100 , 105 ), and 1 measured walnut consumption in Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Iran, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates (the Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiology [PURE] study 98 ) All assessed walnut intake using food frequency questionnaires, which were self-administered in 6 cohorts, and interviewer-administered in 2 cohorts (CARDIA study 102 and Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study 105 ). One cohort study exclusively enrolled older adults.…”

“…Studies that were identified investigating the effect of walnut intake on biomarkers of aging were limited to 1 RCT enrolling 708 subjects (the WAHA study) 63 , 88 and 3 cohort studies. 99 , 101 , 104 …”

Nuts: Natural Pleiotropic Nutraceuticals

“…There is evidence from a single prospective study conducted in Spain, where nut consumption is rather high, that it may lower the risk of impaired agility/mobility and increase overall physical function in older individuals [ 102 ], while another report from the NHS cohort suggests that consumption of total nuts and, particularly, walnuts is associated with healthy aging, i.e., survival beyond 65 years with no chronic diseases, no memory impairment, no physical disabilities, and intact mental health [ 103 ].…”

Nutritional redundancy in the human diet and its application in phenotype association studies

“…Finally, we asked whether personal NR can be an indicator of healthy aging ---an overall indicator we developed by combining measures of physical function, cognitive function, mental health, and chronic diseases [51][52][53] . To address this question, we focused on a subset of NHS participants (n=21,299) for whom we had all of these four healthy aging components: healthy agers (n=3,491) and usual agers (n=17,808) through a previous study 54 . The healthy agers are defined as those participants who survived beyond 65 years of age, with no history of chronic diseases, no reported memory impairment, no physical disabilities, and intact mental health.…”