It seems that everyone is complaining about some sort of digestive problem, whether it be bloating, stomach cramping, heartburn, or irregular bowel movements. If you’ve ever experienced problems with your digestion, you know how it can negatively affect you. You start to feel miserable, sick, uncomfortable, and feel like you need to go to the bathroom.
Thankfully, there is some good news in the field of digestion that may finally give you some relief from your digestive woes. New research suggests that consuming walnuts can help improve your gut health.
Half a cup of walnuts daily improves gut health
What’s so special about walnuts? Well, as the study outlined, consuming walnuts daily helped promote probiotics and good bacteria in the gut including lactobacillus, roseburia, and ruminococcaceae.
Walnuts are a probiotic, which nourish good bacteria in the gut to promote a healthy environment, reducing digestive symptoms.
Lead researcher Lauri Byerley explained, “The health of the gut is related to overall health in the rest of the body. Our study is showing that walnuts change the gut, which could help explain why there are other positive health benefits to eating walnuts such as heart and brain health.”
Walnuts aren’t just great for your gut. Alternative studies uncovered that they promote a healthy heart and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
“Greater bacterial diversity may be associated with better health outcomes, whereas low diversity has been linked to conditions such as obesity and inflammatory bowel disease,” Byerley continued.
Nuts, in general, have been found to be good for overall health, but walnuts specifically contain key nutrients, which make them exceptionally good for your digestive system.
The study was conducted on rats over the course of 10 weeks. The rats either consumed a diet, which contained crushed up walnuts—equivalent to half a cup for humans—or a diet containing no walnuts at all. The rats who consumed the walnuts were found to have greater gut bacteria diversity.
So, if you’re looking for an easy and natural way to ease digestive woes, you may want to start by adding half a cup of walnuts to your diet.