Walnuts and dietary approaches to the prevention and management of abnormal lipid profiles in Type 2 diabetes mellitus

Dietary fat is considered central to the management of obesity and heart disease risk, and more recently with the risk of type 2 diabetes, given its observed role in the development of insulin resistance in mechanistic studies. For changes in lipid profiles, foods delivering substantial amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acids relative to saturated fats are of interest, and walnuts fit this category.As a class of foods, nuts have been shown to provide benefits to health in a number of clinical trials. A review of the cardiovascular benefits of nuts indicated their value on thrombotic factors, inflammatory markers and endothelial function.Including 30g walnuts per day in a dietary advice scheme that related to all major food groups resulted in beneficial lipid profiles for adults with early type 2 diabetes mellitus. Walnuts should be ‘prescribed’ to adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus In clinical practice prescribing walnuts assists the clinician in giving more detailed dietary advice that is likely to be on target for the desired outcomes. The reality for ‘free living’ conditions is that foods such as walnuts may need to be considered core foods in these treatment strategies, as they help to ‘take the guesswork’ out of ensuring adequate intakes of polyunsaturated fats.