A handful of almonds can boost your health

It is a known fact that a handful of almonds sharpens your brain, but a new research has suggested that it can also improve your diet.

University of Florida researchers studied the effect that the addition of almonds can have on a person's diet quality, based on data collected from 28 parent-child pairs living in North Central Florida.

During the research, parents were instructed to eat 1.5 ounces of whole almonds each day during the three-week intervention portion of the research period and the children were encouraged to eat half an ounce of whole almonds or an equivalent amount of almond butter each day.

The researchers believed that the parents and children were replacing salty and processed snacks with almonds during their study.

Over the past 20 years, per-capita consumption of nuts and seeds has decreased in children three and six years old, while the consumption of savory snacks like chips and pretzels increased.

Researchers were interested in studying the addition of almonds into three- to six-year-old children's diets, because encouraging healthy eating habits during early childhood can have numerous lifelong benefits.

Researcher Alyssa Burns said that the habits a person has when he is younger are carried into adulthood, so if a parent is able to incorporate almonds or different healthy snacks into a child's diet, it's more likely that the child will choose those snacks later on in life.

The study's results suggest whole food approaches, like adding almonds to one's diet, may be an achievable way to improve overall public health.

The research is published in the Journal of Nutrition Research.