Swapping crisps and chips for a handful of nuts every day can prevent you piling on the pounds

EATING a handful of walnuts a day instead of snacks such as crisps prevents piling on the pounds, researchers say.

A major study found it could be a simple way to ward off obesity.

Nuts are not usually considered good for weight control because, despite being rich in healthy unsaturated fats, vitamins and fibre, they are calorie-dense.

But evidence now suggests they can stave off hunger and increase the amount of fat excreted.

While all nuts were found to help with weight, half a serving of walnuts a day was linked to a 15 per cent lower risk of obesity.

Preventative medicine researchers at a US teaching hospital analysed data on weight, diet and physical activity for nearly 300,000 people over more than two decades.

Participants were asked every four years to state their weight and how often they had eaten nuts in the past year.

Substituting junk food snacks with nuts was associated with a lower risk of becoming obese.

Author Dr Deirdre Tobias, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said: “Snacking on a handful of nuts rather than biscuits or crisps may help to ward off the weight gain that often accompanies ageing and is a relatively manageable way of helping to curb the onset of obesity.”

She added that using nuts and seeds to replace animal sources of protein was also more environmentally friendly.

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