Nut portion recommendations

Relation

Braun R, Grau AR, Chua MG, Ware L, Chisholm A, Tey SL. Is a handful an effective way to make nut recommendations?Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021;18(15):7812.

Study objective

The aim of this study was to quantify the actual amount of nuts people choose when using different descriptive terms (handful, large/small, usual, or 30g).

Key to take away

The recommendation of a “handful” of nuts is perceived by around 8 out of 10 people to mean more than 30 g of nuts.

Draft

A descriptive study to determine the weight of assumed portions of nuts when participants were instructed to eat different types of “handfuls.”

Participant

Investigators recruited 124 adults from Dunedin, New Zealand, with 120 subjects included in the final analysis (75 women and 45 men). The mean age was 34 years (24–51). There were approximately equal numbers of subjects who were normal weight, overweight and obese.

Ethnicities of all subjects included New Zealand European (58, 48.3%), Māori (7, 5.8%), Pacific Islander (2, 1.7%), Asian (50, 41.7%), and other (3, 2.5%).

Exclusion: Anyone allergic or intolerant to nuts. The final number of subjects included in the study was 120.

intervention

After subjects completed a questionnaire about their usual nut consumption and assessed their general hunger, they were randomized to receive 3 of 6 types of nuts and were instructed to remove the nuts from a bowl based on what they perceived as:

1. eine „übliche Portion“ Nüsse,
2. eine „Handvoll“ Nüsse
3. eine „kleine Handvoll“ Nüsse
4. eine „große Handvoll“ Nüsse, und
5. entspricht einer „30-g-Portion“ Nüsse.

Study parameters assessed

The parameters assessed included subjects' baseline nut consumption, overall rated hunger (from “not at all” to “extremely” hungry), and perception of the above 5 nut portions.

After subjects completed the experiment, investigators weighed each of the 5 perceived portions and recorded each participant's size (as a surrogate for hand size).

Primary outcome

The primary outcome was to determine whether the term “handful” is a useful and accurate way to guide consumers to eat approximately 30g of nuts per day to reduce the incidence of chronic disease.

Key insights

The key findings of this study were that there was a great deal of variability in subjects' estimates of the 5 different portions, and these also varied between nut types.

The variability between subjects was considerable: Across all types of nuts, a “handful” ranged from 9.1 g to 106.3 g. For a 30g serving, the range was 6.0g to 148.5g.

The mean nut weights for all participants and all nut types combined were as follows:

1. eine „übliche Portion“ = 24,8 g
2. eine „Handvoll“ = 36,3 g
3. eine „kleine Handvoll“ = 16,7 g
4. eine „große Handvoll“ = 61,3 g
5. „30-g-Portion“ = 28,7 g

Nut portions: Overall, 83.0% of subjects chose at least 80% of the recommended 30g serving when told to eat a “handful” of nuts, compared to 62.7% when told a “30g serving” and 52% when told a “usual serving”. This suggests that the term "a handful" may be a more useful general term when making recommendations for nut intake than saying "30 grams."

Nut type: Overall, more test subjects (90%) chose an amount that corresponds to at least 80% of the recommendation for almonds and macadamias, while this was only the case for hazelnuts 78.3%, for walnuts 72.9% and for cashews 71.7%.

transparency

This research received no external funding.

Effects and limitations of practice

Current nut consumption guidelines in many countries recommend consuming 28 to 30 g of nuts, which is about 1 ounce.¹But many people may not be familiar with what 1 ounce of nuts looks like. In an attempt to determine useful, practical, and accurate formulations for recommendations, this study weighed the nut portions resulting from several of the common terms used to recommend nut consumption. The results of this study suggest that of the 5 terms, using the term “a handful” was the most reliable and useful way to get the majority of subjects to consume at least 80% of the recommended 30 g/day.

The study found some different results as they also related to gender differences and nut type. For example, when nut types were combined, for “large handful,” “handful,” and “usual portion,” those meeting at least 80% of the recommendation were 3, 9, and 15 percentage points higher for men than for women. Investigators also noted numerical differences by nut type. When asked to take a “handful,” 90% of participants chose an amount that was at least 80% of the recommendation for almonds and macadamias, while only 78.3% and 72.9% did so for hazelnuts and walnuts, respectively. For the estimated “30g serving,” 53.3% chose amounts that were at least 80% of the recommendation for almonds, compared to 71.7% of participants for cashews.

But many people may not be familiar with what 1 ounce of nuts looks like.”

The authors identified a number of limitations that should be considered when interpreting the results. First, they did not measure people's hand size and therefore cannot draw conclusions about the relationship between portion size and hand size. They also point out that “the sample was not representative of the New Zealand population, with a higher percentage of women and a predominance of Caucasians and Asians.” They did not measure physical activity levels for each individual and instead used the light activity score as a conservative estimate of energy needs.

Ultimately, a “handful” resulted in a high proportion of people consuming at least 80% of the 30g/day of nuts for good health. This study showed that “a handful” is actually a useful and practical way to recommend the correct portion size for daily nut consumption.