ATLANTA, February 25, 2014 – If you regularly snack on almonds, pistachios or other kinds of nuts, you’re in good company – and good health. Not only are nuts nutritional powerhouses that keep your weight, blood sugar and cholesterol stable, but new research also reveals that people who eat nuts regularly have a lower risk of cancer, heart disease and respiratory disease than those who don’t. To showcase the top 10 cities in the U.S. where people incorporate nuts into their diet the most, Sharecare, the online health and wellness engagement platform founded by Dr. Mehmet Oz and Jeff Arnold, today announced its Top 10 Cities for Nut Lovers: San Francisco; Denver; San Diego; Austin, Texas; Portland, Ore.; Sacramento, Calif.; Seattle; Minneapolis; Los Angeles; and Salt Lake City.
“Nuts are basically monounsaturated fat and protein which help you feel full, so eating nuts may reduce hunger, lead to less weight gain, and perhaps most importantly, keep people from eating unhealthy substitutes,” says Dr. Keith Roach, chief medical officer at Sharecare. “Monounsaturated fat has a positive impact on longevity, mostly due to its beneficial effects on the heart and blood cholesterol.”
To identify the cities that eat the most nuts, Sharecare examined answers from approximately one million people who took the RealAge® Test, Sharecare’s scientifically based health risk assessment which determines the biological age of your body based on your health status, and good and bad health habits. Eating a one-ounce serving of nuts, five times a week can make your RealAge nearly one year younger. The type of nut doesn’t make a difference – whether you’re noshing on walnuts, macadamia nuts, pecans or even peanuts, all nuts have health benefits.
Sharecare’s analysis also revealed the 10 cities where residents eat the least amount of nuts: Knoxville, Tenn.; Louisville, Ky.; Columbus, Ohio; Memphis, Tenn.; Indianapolis; St. Louis; Cincinnati; Greensboro, N.C.; Greenville, S.C.; and Tampa, Fla.
Sharecare is a health and wellness engagement platform that helps people to live healthier lives by connecting them to personalized resources including local healthcare providers, high-quality information from experts, interactive programs and clinical decision support tools, including its iOS-exclusive app AskMD. The power behind Sharecare is a unique, social Q&A format that provides the collective wisdom of America’s top experts—greatly simplifying the search for health information – and its scientifically-based health risk assessment, the RealAge® Test, taken by more than 33 million people and validated in peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE as a more accurate predictor of mortality than calendar age and the Framingham Risk Score. Created by Jeff Arnold and Dr. Mehmet Oz in partnership with Harpo Productions, Sony Pictures Television and Discovery Communications, Sharecare allows people to ask, learn and act upon questions of health and wellness, creating an active community where knowledge is shared and put into practice—simply said, sharing care. Launched in 2010, Sharecare is based in Atlanta.