New research has heralded these results
A study released in the August issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (AJCN) provides a new understanding of almonds’ calorie count, showing they have about 20% fewer calories than originally thought.
The study, conducted by United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists, provides yet another reason to choose almonds as a nutritious snack.
At first glance, the study results beg the question, how can a food's calorie count suddenly change when the composition of the food itself hasn’t?
The answer is that David Baer, PhD, and his team used an advanced method, built on traditional methods, to determine more precisely the number of calories from almonds that are actually absorbed during digestion. Resulting data showed a 28g serving of almonds (about 23 almonds) has 129 calories versus the 160 calories listed on labels.
The study's discussion noted: "When an 84g serving of almonds was incorporated into the diet daily, the energy digestibility of the diet as a whole decreased by 5%. Therefore, for individuals with energy intakes between 2,000 and 3,000 kcal/d, incorporation of 84g almonds into the diet daily in exchange for highly digestible foods would result in a reduction of available energy of 100–150 kcal/d. With a weight-reduction diet, this deficit could result in more than a pound of weight loss per month."
The results support previous research indicating that the macronutrients in almonds, including fat, are only partially absorbed during digestion. The incomplete absorption of macronutrients in almonds is thought to be due to the fibre content and/or the rigidity of almond cell walls, which encapsulate macronutrients and render them unavailable for absorption during digestion. Therefore, traditional methods of calculating the energy value of almonds result in gross overestimations because they do not account for the fact that macronutrient digestibility in almonds are not 100%.
“I find the research about new, corrected calculations for almonds to be encouraging,” commented Dr. Geoff Livesey, registered public health nutritionist. “The Baer calorie study is an example of how a healthy, nutrient-dense food, like almonds, has 20% fewer calories than previously thought. I hope we see further research in the coming years to investigate more foods, in the context of a mixed diet, and their genuine caloric values.”
In fact, the same research team also recently conducted a similar study using pistachios, finding a 5% decrease in pistachios' calorie count compared to the 20% decrease in almonds'.
The recently published USDA study tested a healthy food, almonds, as part of a “mixed diet,” which means amongst other foods eaten as part of a normal diet. As the new study notes, “There have been few, if any, studies that looked at the calorie value of whole food within a mixed diet that could confirm the accuracy of Atwater’s coefficients.” So, for this study, the researchers expanded on Atwater's approach, using a specially designed diet and a more precise method of measurement that allowed them to understand the calories provided by almonds when eaten as part of a mixed diet.
“I hope the research encourages people to choose nutrient-dense foods like almonds. Having accurate calorie information helps consumers make healthier food choices,” says Livesey. A recent survey found that being overweight was the top health condition affecting respondents across Western Europe and although food labelling in the UK will not likely change in the near future, having accurate information about the energy value of foods is important to consumers, health professionals and food manufacturers. In fact, almonds were named by consumers in the same survey as the best nut for numerous health attributes, including nutrition and weight management.
According to Dr. Karen Lapsley, Chief Scientific Officer for the Almond Board of California: “This new information indicates we get fewer calories than we thought from a handful of almonds. It may help explain, at least in part, why research participants in a recent almond study did not gain weight when they added almonds to their daily routine.” This new study published in the same issue of AJCN found that eating almonds as a daily snack as part of a reduced-calorie diet resulted in weight loss and improvements in heart disease risk factors.
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