New research sug­gests women defend them­selves against breast can­cer with none other than a nut­cracker: eat­ing about two small hand­fuls of wal­nuts every­day may “sig­nif­i­cantly” curb your risks of the disease.

The [url=http://us.lrd.yahoo.com/_ylt=AuBXtetP5AZtlF4iRf8YcHsNWMd_;_ylu=X3oDMTFqMDgxZXM0BG1pdANBcnRpY2xlIEJvZHkEcG9zAzEEc2VjA01lZGlhQXJ0aWNsZUJvZHlBc3NlbWJseQ--;_ylg=X3oDMTM0ZnIxbzk2BGludGwDcGgEbGFuZwNlbi1waARwc3RhaWQDMmQwZDM4MmUtYmFjMC0zNjE0LWEyNzQtZjg3ZDA3MTM5NmVmBHBzdGNhdANsaWZlLWhlYWx0aARwdANzdG9yeXBhZ2UEdGVzdAM-;_ylv=0/SIG=12lg0ki6i/EXP=1316486898/**http%3A//www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-09/murc-bcr090111.php]study[/url] announced last week was con­ducted by researchers at Mar­shall Uni­ver­sity in the US who found that a daily dose of wal­nuts — equal to 2 ounces a day for humans — reduces the growth of breast can­cer tumors in mice.

The study is pub­lished in the jour­nal Nutri­tion and Can­cer.

“Food is impor­tant med­i­cine in our diet,” said the study’s led researcher Elaine Hard­man. “What we put into our bod­ies makes a big dif­fer­ence — it deter­mines how the body func­tions, our reac­tion to ill­ness and health.” She adds: “The sim­ple stuff really works: eat right, get off the couch, and turn off the TV.”

Other good rea­sons to nib­ble wal­nuts? Wal­nuts are loaded with antiox­i­dant polyphe­nols, com­pounds that inter­act with free rad­i­cals to sta­bi­lize them and pre­vent them from wreak­ing havoc on our cells.

Wal­nuts also have almost twice as many antiox­i­dant polyphe­nols as almonds, peanuts, pis­ta­chios, hazel­nuts, cashews, macadamias, Brazil nuts, and pecans, researchers said.

“A hand­ful of wal­nuts con­tains almost twice as much antiox­i­dants as an equiv­a­lent amount of any other com­monly con­sumed nut,” said US chem­istry pro­fes­sor and study researcher Joe Vin­son, who com­pleted a sep­a­rate study on wal­nuts announced ear­lier this year. “But unfor­tu­nately, peo­ple don’t eat a lot of them.”

Plus, like all nuts, wal­nuts are loaded with pro­tein, fiber, vit­a­mins, and min­er­als.
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