Popcorn and Nuts Good for Your Health
Reported August 27, 2008
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — It has been long believed that eating nuts, corn and popcorn can aggravate and even cause diverticulosis a common digestive disorder. However, results of a new study give reason to dismiss that claim.
In a large study of men from 1986 to 2004, researchers not only found that nut, corn and popcorn ingestion was not associated with an increase in diverticular disease or diverticular bleeding, but rather found the opposite to be true. Men with the highest intake of nuts (at least twice per week) had a 20 percent lower risk of diverticulitis compared with men with the lowest nut intake (less than once per month). Similarly, men with the highest intake of popcorn had a 28 percent lower risk of the disease compared with men with the lowest popcorn intake.
These findings refute the pervasive but unproven belief that these foods are associated with diverticular complications and suggest that the recommendation to avoid these foods in diverticular disease should be reconsidered, study authors write.
SOURCE: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 2008;300:907-914