Ask Dr. Gourmet

You say in one of your columns, "One important study shows that nuts added to a Mediterranean Diet made a huge difference in developing metabolic syndrome. (Arch Intern Med 2008: 168; 2449 - 2458)"

Do you mean that adding nuts to the Mediterranean diet makes a huge difference in preventing metabolic syndrome?

Dr. Gourmet Says...

This is exactly the case.

We know that adding monounsaturated fats helps improve cholesterol profile and metabolic syndrome. There's a lot of great choices including almonds, walnuts, peanuts and pecans. I would far prefer my patients have nuts than any sort of processed snack such as potato chips, crackers or pretzels.

I often use nuts in Dr. Gourmet recipes to add both flavor and texture and I love using slivered almonds, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds and chopped pecans.

Thanks for writing,

Timothy S. Harlan, MD, FACP, CCMS
Dr. Gourmet