Bake with This for Healthier Arteries

A bowl of salted nuts isn't the only way to get your nut nutrition. So think outside the peanut bowl and try baking with this: pecan flour.

Nut flours are a great way to pack nutrition into muffins, waffles, breads, and more. And a new study shows that pecan meal may be especially helpful in boosting heart-healthy antioxidants.

Heart-Protecting Pecans
In a small study of men and women, eating a test meal made of whole or ground pecans produced some pretty amazing benefits over another meal that contained the same number of calories but was made with refined ingredients. The pecan meal resulted in significantly higher blood concentrations of antioxidants and even doubled the participants' blood levels of gamma-tocopherol -- a form of vitamin E. What's more, 3 hours after eating the test meal made of whole pecans, the men and women had significantly lower blood levels of oxidized LDL -- the stuff that nicks and wears away artery walls. (Could your cholesterol levels be putting your heart at risk? Take this quick quiz to find out.)

Go a Little Nuts
You don't have to eat a whole meal of pecans to get benefits from this toasty little hickory fruit. Just be creative in how you cook throughout the day. Baking with pecan flour is a great way to replace nutritionally empty calories -- like white flour -- with something that does a body good. You can even add ground pecans to ground beef to make healthier burgers. And add some crunch to oatmeal, salads, and yogurt with some chopped pecans on top. Researchers think pecans may be particularly healthy because they have some of the highest levels of antioxidant phenols around, compared with other nuts. (Here's how to eat lots of nuts without worrying about weight gain.)

Need help controlling your cholesterol? Bump up good cholesterol and take down bad by snacking on these super fruits.