Can Pistachio Nuts Lower Cholesterol?

“Pistachios”, vernacularly referred to as “pista nuts” are known for their richness. They are in fact looked on as a symbol of wealthy families in countries like India. People all over the world have this belief attached to these nuts that they are fatty in content and could bring about weight gain instantly.

Let us look at the scientific importance of these nuts; how nutritional they are and do they really add on to one’s cholesterol levels. Read on and get some light on pistachios!

Scientifically, these delicious pistachio nuts are enriched with many health-benefiting nutrients essential for optimum health. Pistachios actually are kernels obtained from fruits belonging to the Anacardiaceae family, from the genus: Pistacia. Here is a gist of health benefits you can obtain from these nuts:

• Eaten along with walnuts, almonds, and cashews, they offer good sources of protein, fats, and minerals.
• If you need a dash of energy and calories at ones, pistachios are the best choice. 100 g of kernels carry 557 calories and can feed your calorie requirement at once. If you have been starving from the morning, pistachios can be your go to food to feed your body’s calorific needs for half a day!
• The nuts contain mono-unsaturated fatty acids like oleic acid and antioxidants. Therefore, these nuts will lower your LDL cholesterol and increase good HDL cholesterol levels.
• Pista kernels are rich in carotenes, vitamin E, and polyphenolic antioxidant compounds. These ingredients will help fight against diseases, cancers, and infections. Also, anti-oxidants will fight and chase away the free radicals in your bloodstream.
• Pistachios are excellent sources of vitamin E and can work as scavengers of dry skin. They will make your skin hydrated and moisturized from inside.
• They are the storehouse of minerals like copper, manganese, potassium, calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc, and selenium.
• Pistachio oil extracted from kernels is one of the healthiest cooking oils. It has pleasant nutty aroma and can be chosen as the best carrier or basic oil to mix your essential oils in.

With so many health benefits, you must now have a fair idea on what effect it will have on your cholesterol. Here’s a detailed description on how it will impact your cholesterol levels:

As mentioned earlier in the article, pistachios are going to help lower your LDL cholesterol and increase your HDL – that’s good cholesterol. All this is true, but there’s a catch – if you want to include pista nuts in your diet regimen to benefit from its cholesterol lowering ability, you will have to cut back elsewhere to keep your calorie count steady. Doing so will help you restrict yourself from gaining extra weight. Because, extra weight is definitely going to have a bad impact on your heart’s health, beware!

The Research

Prof Kris-Etherton’s team of researchers tested the effect of pista nuts for their antioxidant levels and found that those who ate pistas had more antioxidants in their bodies and low cholesterol levels.

They also researched on normal cholesterol lowering diet with no nuts and two other similar food regimes with 1.5 ounces and 3 ounces of pistachios respectively. The professor’s team concluded that “heart-healthy diet like pistachios contribute to a decrease in serum oxidized-LDL levels, in part through cholesterol lowering, and also due to an added benefit of the antioxidants in the pistachios."

Therefore, pista nuts are going to help lower your cholesterol levels – so the strong point to take is – if you cut back on the calories you gain from a whole meal for a day, and then you can choose to include pista nuts in your diet. Otherwise it will be a weight adding element to your diet and will make it a worst condition for your heart’s health!