Eating a handful of pecans a day can significantly lower cholesterol, according to a study conducted at Loma Linda University’s School of Public Health.

Dr. Sujatha Rajaram, a principal investigator for the study, said even though this research singled out pecans, the emphasis should be on eating different types of nuts rather than just trying to isolate and eat one type of nut. “Population studies have also shown that people who consume nuts frequently have a lower risk for heart disease,” said Rajaram, an assistant professor of public health and preventive medicine.

Rajaram dispels the myth that nuts are a fatty food to be avoided. The type of fat in nuts is the healthy monounsaturated variety—similar to the beneficial fat found in olive oil. Nuts also contain phytonutrients, fiber, and other vitamins, she says.

In a controlled experiment, subjects added pecans to their American Heart Association (AHA) Step I diet—a special diet recommended by the AHA as the first line of therapy for individuals with elevated cholesterol levels.  The study participants lowered their cholesterol more than twice as much as those following the diet who did not eat pecans. Overall cholesterol was lowered 11.3 percent by those who ate pecans versus 5.2 percent by those who didn’t.

Subjects who had pecans with their diet lowered LDL—or “bad”—cholesterol significantly more than those following the AHA diet without pecans. They also maintained desirable levels of HDL—or “good”—cholesterol.

The study is the first so-called “controlled crossover metabolic feeding study” ever done with pecans. The study required 23 research subjects to eat most of their meals in a laboratory kitchen for eight weeks. In the pecan diet, pecans were added to cereals, salads, and entrees such as pasta, amounting to about a handful of pecans a day. Twenty percent of their calories were replaced with pecans.

Researchers used pecans because they are considered a traditional American nut, grown in the United States and consumed frequently. Results of the study were published in the September issue of the Journal of Health.

Loma Linda University is a Seventh-day Adventist health-sciences university located about 60 miles east of Los Angeles.