Just add a handful of almonds: a University of
Florida study suggests that improving one's diet can be as simple as that.
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.
The 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. Although only one
parent and one child's habits were analyzed in the study, which was published
in the December issue of the Journal of Nutrition Research, the researchers
encouraged the whole family to participate and provided enough almonds and
almond butter for everyone in the family to eat.
At the beginning of the 14-week research period the
research subjects' average Healthy Eating Index scores were 53.7 ± 1.8 for the
parents and 53.7 ± 2.6 for the children. The Healthy Eating Index is a measure
of diet quality that assesses conformance to the USDA's Dietary Guidelines for
Americans. A score below 51 is reflective of a poor diet, a score between 51
and 80 reflects a need for improvement and a score greater than 80 indicates a
good diet.
After the almond intervention, the average Healthy
Eating Index score for parents and children increased, with parents' average
increasing to 61.4 ± 1.4 and children's average increasing to 61.4 ± 2.2. They
increased their Healthy Eating Index component scores for total protein foods
and decreased the intake of empty calories.
The researchers believe the parents and children
were replacing salty and processed snacks with almonds, said Alyssa Burns, a
doctoral student in the UF/IFAS food science and human nutrition department who
conducted the study.
Over the past 20 years, per-capita consumption of
nuts and seeds has decreased in children 3 to 6 years old, while the
consumption of savory snacks--like chips and pretzels--increased. Researchers
were interested in studying the addition of almonds into 3- to 6-year-old
children's diets, because encouraging healthy eating habits during early
childhood can have numerous lifelong benefits.
"The habits you have when you are 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," Burns said.
They were also interested in learning how easy or
difficult it is to incorporate almonds into the diets of preschool-aged
children--an age when food preferences are developed.
"Some of the challenges that we saw were that
the kids were getting bored with the almonds, or they didn't like the taste of
the almonds or the almond butter," Burns said.
To counter that, she said they came up with creative
ways for the parents to incorporate the almonds into their children's
diets--for instance, adding them to familiar foods like oatmeal, smoothies or
sandwiches.
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.
"Adding a variety of fruits, vegetables and
nuts to your diet can improve your overall diet quality," Burns said.
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