LLU&MC Scope Autumn 2000

Nutrition professor explains findings of new walnut study during dual press conferences

Joan SabatÈ, MD, DrPH, spoke on the findings of the recent Barcelona study of walnuts during satellite-broadcast simultaneous news conferences held in Loma Linda and Sacramento on April 3.

Walnuts have made the headlines once again at Loma Linda University.

Back in 1993, the original walnut study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, was covered by close to 500 media organizations around the world on television, radio, and in news papers and magazines.

The current study, conducted at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, Spain, and published in the April 4 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, expands the 1993 findings significantly.

On April 3, simultaneous news conferences were held at Loma Linda and Sacramento, linked by satellite. At the same time, the proceedings were beamed by satellite around the world.

Joan Sabaté, MD, DrPH, professor and chair of the department of nutrition, School of Public Health, presented the findings and fielded questions by media representatives at both locations.

A third news conference was conducted in Barcelona a few hours later, where Emilio Ros, MD, researcher at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona and director of the study, addressed the European press.

"Walnuts lowered the risk of coronary heart disease by 11 percent," says Dr. Ros. "It's as simple as this: if you eat a handful of walnuts a day, you will lower your blood cholesterol, and therefore lower your cardiovascular risk."

The most recent study of walnuts went several significant steps further than the 1993 study. "The Barcelona study breaks new ground," explains Dr. Sabaté. "We found in our 1993 Loma Linda study that healthy young men can benefit from eating walnuts."

He continues, "Now we can extend our findings to women, as well as men, to older people, and to those with high cholesterol who are already at risk of or showing signs of heart disease."

The team of researchers studied 49 men and women ranging in ages from 28 to 72 at the Hospital Clinic of Barce lona's lipid section. All of the subjects had high cholesterol. For six weeks, they followed a cholesterol-lowering diet at home. Then, for another six weeks, they followed a similar diet in which walnuts replaced 35 percent of the dietary monounsaturated fat.

The expectations of researchers were confirmed when the Mediterranean diet significantly lowered cholesterol levels in the blood for the subjects.

With the addition of walnuts to the diet, the levels of cholesterol fell even further—on average serum cholesterol fell another 4.1 percent, LDL cholesterol dropped an additional 5.9 percent, and lipoprotein(s) levels were reduced by 6.2 percent beyond the Mediterranean diet.

Because saturated fats tend to make up a higher proportion of Western diets, Dr. Ros feels that even greater benefits would result by replacing some of the dietary fat intake with walnuts.

The article in the April 4, 2000, issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, titled "Substituting Walnuts for Monounsaturated Fat Improves the Serum Lipid Profile of Hypercholesterolic Men and Women," was coauthored by Daniel Zambun, MD; Dr. Sabaté; Sonia Munoz, PhD; Betina Campero, RD; Elena Casals, MD; Manuel Merlos, PhD; Juan C. Laguna, PhD; and Dr. Ros.

[Scope, Autumn 2000]