Which Is Better: Nuts or Olive Oil?

Let's pretend for a moment that you have two options for improving your health: Eat more nuts or eat more olive oil. Which should you choose?

Believe it or not, nuts could have a slight edge, especially if you're concerned about metabolic syndrome, a combo of health conditions that raises heart disease risk.

Nuts for Your Health
In a 1-year study, people who ate a Mediterranean-style diet and added an extra ounce of nuts (roughly a small handful) had a lower incidence of metabolic syndrome compared with the people who ate the same diet but instead added 4 to 5 ounces more of olive oil every day. Find out about the cluster of risk factors that makes up metabolic syndrome -- and if you might have them.

The Whole Truth
Why the difference? Here's one simple theory: Olive oil is a fat extracted from olives, but nuts are a whole food with more good-for-you stuff in them, including fiber, protein, and minerals. Both olive oil and nuts can -- and should -- have a place in a healthy diet. In the study, both seemed to help tamp down high triglycerides and abdominal fat better than a low-fat diet did. But the nut eaters also experienced better blood pressure, which is one reason their metabolic syndrome numbers were better. Go nuts! Learn to toast nuts with this quick video.

Recipe Corner
It's time to get creative! Add more nuts to your meals with these simple ideas from EatingWell:

• For a satisfying snack: Spiced Spanish Almonds
• For a quick lunch: Crunchy Pear & Celery Salad
• For healthier finger food: Almond-Crusted Chicken Fingers
• For an easy dinner: Pear, Walnut & Gorgonzola Pizzas

Effect of a Mediterranean diet supplemented with nuts on metabolic syndrome status: one-year results of the PREDIMED randomized trial. Salas-Salvado, J. et al., Archives of Internal Medicine 2008 Dec 8;168(22):2449-2458.