LITTLE ROCK, Ark.
— It’s the ultimate snack for a person who’s always on the hunt for a treat to add to his or her diet.
“I’m not going to go on TV or make people look good by saying it,” said Dr. David Leder, a nutritionist and senior lecturer at Arkansas State University.
Leder is among those who recommend nut oil as an effective way to add weight and control waistlines.
In a recent study of 1,800 people, people who ate a lot of nuts reported a 30 percent drop in weight.
But not everyone likes nuts as much as Dr. Leder and his colleagues at Arkansas Health Sciences University found.
The study, published online this month in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that those who ate nuts had higher levels of the lipid known as triglycerides and the hormone called leptin.
Tobacco and coffee, both of which are also high in fats and sugar, had similar results, the researchers found.
But for people who had a high level of obesity and had high levels of insulin resistance, nuts did not provide the same benefit.
The researchers found that insulin resistance was associated with high levels in insulin and triglycerides.
“I think there’s a lot more to it than just just having high levels,” said Leder.
His research is part of a national study by the National Institutes of Health that is studying whether adding nut oil to the diet can improve insulin sensitivity.
The researchers studied about 1,400 obese people and found that when they were given 2 tablespoons of olive oil or coconut oil or almond oil daily, they lost an average of about 30 pounds.
It wasn’t just fat, the group also lost more muscle mass, strength and energy, the study found.
Leder said that when people eat a diet high in saturated fat, such as butter, he advises them to add a few tablespoons of walnuts, pecans or other nuts.
And if people have low insulin resistance and low levels of triglycerides, he said they should add a little coconut oil.
When people lose weight, their blood sugar levels improve and insulin resistance goes down.
But when people lose the weight, insulin resistance is still there, the NIH study found, and insulin levels can rise.
Larger studies will need to be done to confirm these results.
This is a growing area of research, said Dr., Lisa McPherson, a professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago.
She said people who are obese are likely to have other risk factors, including genetics, and eating a diet that includes saturated fat can make things worse.
