According to a new study, eating two ounces of nuts a day for 16 weeks improved self-reported mental health indicators in undergraduate university students. It also protected against the negative effects of school stress and improved long-term sleep quality.
University life can be incredibly stressful, with 8 in 10 students reporting regular episodes of stress and 61% seeking counseling for anxiety, depression or other issues.[1]
A new research study has found that consuming two ounces of nuts daily for 16 weeks among undergraduate college students improved self-reported mental health indicators, was protective against some of the negative impacts of school stress, and helped self-reported quality of sleep in the longer term. The study, conducted by researchers from the University of South Australiawas recently published in the journal Nutrients.[2]
“We’ve always known nuts to be a health-promoting food, but due to the design and length of this study, the results really paint a picture of how a simple food like nuts can help fight cancer. stress,” says Mauritz F. Herselman. . , a PhD student who worked on this study.
In this randomized clinical trial, the group of participants who ate walnuts also experienced an increase in metabolic markers associated with protection against stress. The study was co-funded by the University of South Australia and the California Walnut Commission.
Each ounce of nuts contains 2.5g of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), the plant-based omega-3 fatty acid, 4g of protein, 2g of fiber and 45mg of magnesium.
Additionally, in women only, nut consumption may have counteracted the negative effects of school stress on gut bacterial diversity.
“University students are a unique population of people transitioning into adulthood while earning college degrees, which can be challenging and stressful. The pressure to finish and find attractive jobs is high and can impact the mental and physical health and general well-being of students,” says Larisa Bobrovskaya, PhD, associate professor of clinical and health sciences at the University of South Australia and lead researcher on the study.
“Thus, the management of academic stress is important and various strategies can be adopted by students to get through their university journey. Dietary intervention is one such strategy that can improve students’ brain health, but is often overlooked by students,” she adds.
Overview of the study
University students between the ages of 18 and 35 were randomly selected to be part of a treatment group or a control group for 16 weeks of this study.
The treatment group received pre-portioned nuts and were asked to consume one serving (about 56 grams) per day. The control group was instructed to abstain from consuming any type of nut or oily fish for the same duration.
Participants provided blood and saliva samples and completed a series of self-reported questionnaires about mental health, mood, general well-being and sleep patterns three times during the study. A subset of participants also provided fecal samples at each clinic visit. A total of 60 participants, 30 in each group, completed the study.
Promising results for walnuts
The nut-eating group appeared to experience a protective effect against some of the negative impacts of school stress on mental health compared to the control group. A summary of the study results can be found in the box below.
The effects of nut consumption on the mental health and general well-being of college students.
- Daily nut consumption prevented significant changes in mental health-related scores and stress and depression scores. Walnuts may alleviate the negative effects of school stress on the mental health of university students.
- Daily nut consumption increased total protein and albumin levels, which may protect against the negative effects of school stress on metabolic biomarkers.
- While school stress did not alter stress biomarkers such as cortisol and α-amylase, daily walnut consumption decreased α-amylase levels, further suggesting that walnuts may protect against the effects of stress.
- School stress was associated with lower gut microbial diversity in women. But daily nut consumption may mitigate the negative effects of school stress on gut microbiota diversity in women.
- Eating nuts may improve longer-term sleep.
Other emerging but consistent evidence from observational and clinical research suggests that nut consumption is associated with:[3-5]
- Lower prevalence and frequency of depressive symptoms in US adults
- Improved mood in otherwise healthy young adults and
- A greater likelihood of achieving overall health at older ages, with mental health being an area of healthy aging
In fact, walnuts have a unique matrix of bioactive nutrients and phytochemicals that may underlie the beneficial mental health effects seen in these studies.[6]
“While more supporting research is needed, it is becoming clear that consuming nuts as a healthy way of eating may have positive effects on cognition and mental health, potentially due to their abundance in omega-3s. TO THE.”* says Bobrovskaya.
“Additionally, research has shown that increasing dietary tryptophan, which the brain uses to make serotonin (a natural mood stabilizer), leads to reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression.7 Thus, the presence of tryptophan in the nuts may also have contributed to these findings,” she notes.
These results are encouraging and support previous findings found in similar populations, but there are limitations to the current study. Generally, the participants were not blinded to the walnut treatment. Also, the results could have been more influenced by the 2020[{” attribute=””>COVID-19 pandemic and stay-at-home orders, as clinical visits were disrupted during this period.
Further work is needed to improve the understanding of the complex pathways through which eating patterns that include walnuts can influence the brain or affect mental health.
Adding walnuts to daily eating patterns could be one small, versatile, simple, and accessible dietary change to promote brain health and overall well-being in university-aged students.
References:
- Stress in college. The American Institute of Stress website. https://www.stress.org/college-students. Accessed November 30, 2022.
- “The Effects of Walnuts and Academic Stress on Mental Health, General Well-Being and the Gut Microbiota in a Sample of University Students: A Randomised Clinical Trial” by Mauritz F. Herselman, Sheree Bailey, Permal Deo, Xin-Fu Zhou, Kate M. Gunn and Larisa Bobrovskaya, 11 November 2022, Nutrients.
DOI: 10.3390/nu14224776 - “Consumption of nuts at midlife and healthy aging in women” by Tania-Marisa Freitas-Simoes, Maude Wagner, Cecilia Samieri, Aleix Sala-Vila and Francine Grodstein, 7 January 2020, Journal of Aging Research.
DOI: 10.1155/2020/5651737 - “Lower depression scores among walnut consumers in NHANES” by Lenore Arab, Rong Guo and David Elashoff, 26 January 2019, Nutrients.
DOI: 10.3390/nu11020275 - “Effects of walnut consumption on mood in young adults—a randomized controlled trial” by Peter Pribis, 25 October 2016, Nutrients.
DOI: 10.3390/nu8110668 - Nutrients in one ounce of walnuts. California Walnut Commission website. https://walnuts.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Nutrients-In-1OZ-Handout_Update.pdf. Accessed November 30, 2022.
- “The Effects of Dietary Tryptophan on Affective Disorders” by Glenda Lindseth, Brian Helland and Julie Caspers, 9 December 2014, Archives of Psychiatric Nursing.
DOI: 10.1016/j.apnu.2014.11.008
*Walnuts are the only nut with an excellent source of the omega-3 alpha-linolenic
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