Almonds improve your gut health

Munching on a few almonds every day can improve your gut health. 

The nuts encourage the production of butyrate, a short-chain fatty acid that helps gut microbes to flourish and strengthens the gut wall, reducing the risk of a leaky gut. Butyrate also helps the gut absorb nutrients more efficiently.

But a diet of fast and processed foods can reduce the levels of butyrate, as researchers from King’s College London discovered when they analysed the gut health of 87 volunteers, who were regularly eating unhealthy snacks such as chocolate or crisps.

To discover whether almonds could counteract a bad diet, the researchers split the volunteers into three groups: one swapped their unhealthy snacks for 56 g of whole almonds every day, the second ate the same amount of ground almonds, and the third ate muffins.

After four weeks, the butyrate level in both the groups who were eating almonds was far higher than in the muffin group, although those eating whole almonds had up to two more bowel movements a week.

This could mean that eating almonds could help ease constipation, the researchers suggested.

American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2022; doi: 10.1093/ajcn/nqac265

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