Walnuts can slash diabetes risk by a quarter: study

Eating walnuts two or three times a week can lower the risk of developing type two diabetes in women by a almost a quarter, new research has claimed.
Researchers studied nearly 140,000 women in the US and found that those who ate a 28 gramme packet of walnuts at least twice a week were 24 per cent less likely to develop type two diabetes than those who rarely or never ate them.
While previous research has shown the anti-diabetic effects of walnuts, the new study is believed to be one of the largest to find that regularly snacking on them can help prevent the condition.

Although the latest research was conducted on female nurses, it's likely that the same benefits apply to men, researchers said.
Scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, tracked 137,893 nurses aged from 35 to 77 over a ten year period to see how many developed type two diabetes, The Telegraph reported.
Their dietary habits were closely monitored, including details on how often they ate nuts, particularly walnuts.
After allowing for body fat and weight, the researchers found eating walnuts one to three times a month curbed the risk by four per cent, once a week by 13 per cent and at least twice a week by 24 per cent.

"Our results suggest higher walnut consumption is associated with a significantly lower risk of type two diabetes in women," researchers said in the study published in the Journal of Nutrition.