Nutrition research at its best … Not!

And the headline read: “No short-term, statistically significant difference between calorie-matched fries and almonds on key health metrics”

Let’s look a little deeper.

I guess if the only key health metrics you care about are body fat, fasting glucose and insulin, you’re all good, continue to pound down the fries. But, if you care about your blood glucose and insulin when not fasting, you might want to join the almond group. There was a significantly lower glucose and insulin response post ingestion (postprandial) in the almond group. Critical information for those who are insulin resistant or diabetic. (I’ve added some nutrition facts from each, including the glycemic load, at the end of the article.)

From the News Release by the Alliance for Potato Research and Education, the funders of the study:

“Changes in body composition (i.e., body fat mass), body weight, fasting glucose and fasting insulin levels at the end of the one-month trial were comparable across the French fry and almond intervention groups and were not clinically significant. As expected, given the difference in carbohydrate content between the French fries and almonds, acute peak blood glucose and insulin levels were higher after consuming the French fries. However, these levels were not elevated beyond a normal range, and this difference did not have an apparent impact on any other glucoregulatory biomarkers.”