This recently study published in the Nutrients journal found that incorporating pecans into a typical American diet significantly improved insulin sensitivity and lowered the risk of cardiometabolic disease in healthy overweight and obese adults with central adiposity (excess belly fat).
The study compared the effects of a pecan-rich diet (42.5 g/day) with a control diet, with the same calories but absent of nuts, on biomarkers related to cardiovascular disease (CVD) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) risk in healthy adults, who were overweight or obese with central adiposity. In total, 26 volunteers were included in the study. During the first period (4 weeks), participants ate either a control diet with no nuts or the same diet with pecans. In the second period, and after two weeks of wash-out period, participants ate the opposite diet. Blood and urine samples were collected at baseline and at the end of each period.
Results observed that displacing a portion of the saturated fat in a typical American diet and enhancing phytochemical intake with a daily handful of pecans may help protect adults at risk of developing CVD and T2DM.
McKay, D. L., Eliasziw, M., Chen, C. Y., & Blumberg, J. B. (2018). A Pecan-Rich Diet Improves Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in Overweight and Obese Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Nutrients, 10(3), 339.