A new study by the Imperial College London has revealed that eating a handful of nuts can prevent severe illnesses such as cardiovascular diseases and cancer.

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Individuals who consume at least 20 grams of nuts a day have 30 percent, 15 percent and 22 percent lower chances of developing heart diseases, cancer, and premature death, respectively. The research involved an analysis of 29 studies that covered over 800,000 participants from different regions, who were exposed to diverse risk factors.

Tree nuts such as almonds, walnuts, cashews, hazelnuts, pecans, pistachios, peanuts, and Brazil nuts are rich in magnesium, fiber and polyunsaturated fats are known to help in preventing heart diseases. Researchers found that tree nuts protect the body from developing cancer while peanuts reduce the risk of stroke.

"For specific causes of death, we estimated that 1.19 million deaths due to coronary heart disease, 469,000 due to cancer, 1.07 million due to respiratory disease, and 138,000 due to diabetes may be caused by a nut intake below 20 grammes per day," the co-author of the study, Dagfinn Aune, said.

Aune noted that even though nuts are high in fat, their high protein and fiber content makes them effective in reducing obesity. However, he warned that peanut butter should be avoided since it is high in salt and sugar. He added that "some nuts, particularly walnuts and pecan nuts are also high in antioxidants, which can fight oxidative stress and possibly reduce cancer risk."

The study on the beneficial health impacts of nuts was published in the journal BMC Medicine. The authors revealed that consuming more than 20 grams of nuts a day does not offer additional health benefits.

"We found a consistent reduction in risk across many different diseases, which is a strong indication that there is a real underlying relationship between nut consumption and different health outcomes. It's quite a substantial effect for such a small amount of food," Aune said.