Including nuts in the diet has several benefits, according to Dr. Joan Sabate, chairman of the nutrition department at the Loma Linda University School of Public Health. But don’t overdue it on the amount you eat, doctors warn.

A study done by LLU shows that those who included nuts in their diet were thinner than those who did not eat nuts often, and that nuts help reduce high cholesterol levels. Not only has the myth that nuts make you fat been dispelled, this fatty food once believed to be avoided can also reduce heart disease, Sabate says.

Researchers suggest the maximum limit is two ounces a day. “It’s about frequency—not quantity, assuming a quantity of one to two ounces,” Sabate says. “Eating nuts in small quantities frequently doesn’t seem to affect weight.”

Although recent reports confirm what has long been discussed about the benefits of including nuts in one’s diet, researchers at LLU and other institutions are continuing their experiments in this area. The Adventist Health Study has tracked the impact of diet on health for years, and they are currently studying the effect walnuts have on health.

“We have found that eating walnuts lowered cholesterol beyond the effect of an American Heart Association diet,” Sabate says. “Subsequently we’re now studying the effect of walnuts on weight. We don’t have the results yet, but our hypothesis is that eating nuts will not change body weight.”

Various types of nuts, such as walnuts, pecans and almonds, each have unique benefits for the cardiovascular system, Sabate says. The type of fat in nuts, researchers say, is the healthy monounsaturated variety—similar to the beneficial fat found in olive oil. Nuts also contain phytonutrients, fiber and other vitamins.

Leaders in the research at LLU were the first to make the discovery that eating nuts lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease by as much as 50 percent, according to Sabate. Subsequent studies came out with similar results. LLU Medical Center was referenced in a recent article in the New York Times as one of the leading health studies on nuts, along with the Harvard Nurses’ Health Study, the Physicians Health Study and the Iowa Health Study.

Adventists have advocated a plant diet based on fruits, vegetables, grains and nuts since the midnineteenth century. They base these health practices on the diet advised in the Bible and the advice of Ellen G. White, one of the founders of the Adventist Church.