Researchers Found That Eating Walnuts Can Improve Young Men's Mood

People do a number of things to relieve stress. In a recent study, a handful of walnuts every day can help young men handle their daily stress. According to the study, this snack is packed with nutrients that can lead to a happier state of mind.

Researchers of the study found a significant improvement in the mood of young, healthy males who included walnuts in their daily diet for eight weeks, Times of India reported.

"In the past, studies on walnuts have shown beneficial effects on many health outcomes like heart disease, diabetes and obesity," said researcher Peter Pribis, Professor at University of New Mexico in the U.S. "Our study was different because we focused on cognition, and in this controlled randomized trial (CRT) we measured mood outcomes in males and females," Pribis added.

There were 64 participants between the ages 18 and 25 who enlisted for the study. The participants were instructed to eat three slices of banana bread every day for 16 weeks, 8 weeks of banana bread with walnuts and 8 weeks of banana bread without walnuts.

According to Indian Express, the nuts were carefully ground into the soft dough so the two banana bread were similar in taste and appearance. Unknowingly, the participants were consuming half a cup of walnuts daily while eating banana bread. And then the mood of the students was then measured at the end of each 8-week period.

"We used a validated questionnaire called Profiles of Mood States (POMS)," Pribis said. "It is one of the most widely used and accepted mood scales in studies on cognition. The test has six mood domains: tension, depression, anger, fatigue, vigor, confusion and also provides a Total Mood Disturbance score (TMD)," Pribis further explained.

Meanwhile, researchers of the study, published in the journal Nutrients, also found that consumption of walnuts led to a significant improvement in mood in young, healthy males. "In non-depressed healthy young males, walnuts seem to have the ability to improve mood."

"There was a meaningful, 28 percent improvement of mood in young men," Pribis pointed out. The researchers explained that there are several nutrients in walnuts that could be responsible for the improved mood such as alpha-Linolenic acid, vitamin E, folate, polyphenols or melatonin.

"However, we did not observe any improvement of mood in females. Why this is we do not know," Pribis said.