Most people know that nuts are good for their health. They are beneficial for the heart, they help fight cancer, they reduce inflammation, and they slow the aging process. A new study shows consuming them on a regular basis also bolsters brainwave functions in areas such as cognition, healing, learning, and memory.
Interestingly, different nuts provide different benefits, reports EurekAlert. For example, researchers determined that pistachios produced the biggest gamma wave response. This function is crucial for things such as cognitive processing, information retention, learning, and perception.
Even though peanuts are technically legumes, they were also included in the study by researchers at Loma Linda University Health in California. Eating peanuts produced the highest delta response, which correlates to a strong immunity, natural healing, and deep sleep.
Researchers examined six different types of nuts—almonds, cashews, peanuts, pecans, pistachios, and walnuts. They found all of them contained high beneficial antioxidants, but walnuts possessed the highest levels of antioxidants.
“This study provides significant beneficial findings by demonstrating that nuts are as good for your brain as they are for the rest of your body,” noted the study’s principal investigator, Lee Berk, DrPH, MPH, associate dean for research at the LLU School of Allied Health Professions.
This study is the one of few that has examined how eating nuts affects the brain. Berk believes further research will prove that nuts also offer other benefits to the brain and nervous system.
In the study “Nuts and Brain: Effects of eating nuts on changing electroencephalograph brainwaves”, Berk and his colleagues examined volunteers’ brains with electroencephalograms (EEGs) after they consumed nuts. They measured their brainwaves to come to their conclusions.
