Almonds may be the perfect food for diabetics. Recent research shows that when people with early type-2 diabetes eat a serving of almonds with breakfast, they have significantly lower blood sugar, along with better protection against the chronic diseases associated with diabetes, than people who don’t nosh on the nuts. 

The study, which was published in September 20ll in the journal Metabolism, involved two different clinical trials. In the first trial, University of Arizona researchers had 19 people (seven with type-2 diabetes) eat a high-carbohydrate breakfast (bagel, butter and juice) with or without a 1-ounce serving of almonds. The diabetics’ peak blood sugar dropped 30 percent when they ate the breakfast with almonds, compared to a 7 percent drop in the nondiabetics.

The researchers also ran a longer trial in which they had diabetic patients eat a serving of almonds five days a week for 12 weeks. At the end of the study, the patients’ hemoglobin A1c levels, which measure a person’s average blood sugar during the preceding three months, dropped 4 percent. This is equivalent to a 10 mg/dl drop in average blood glucose.

“These data show that modest almond consumption favorably improves both short-term and long-term markers of glucose control in individuals with uncomplicated type-2 diabetes,” the researcher concluded.

Nuts are high in unsaturated fats and fiber and low in carbohydrates. Emerging evidence suggests that they might even decrease the risk of getting type-2 diabetes. Eating nuts along with simple carbohydrates reduces the glycemic impact of the carbohydrates, which in turn reduces the post-meal spike in blood sugar and lowers the total amount of insulin the body must make to process the meal.

To get the most effect, the research suggests that eating whole almonds rather than almond butter or almond meal, which have less of an impact on blood sugar.

Other studies show that eating nuts, including almonds, decreases LDL, the bad cholesterol, and increases HDL, the good cholesterol. What’s more, despite the fact that nuts have a lot of calories, people who snack on them lose weight. Nuts create such a feeling of satiety that they can cause people to reduce their total calorie intake.