“Just a handful of nuts may help keep us from packing on the pounds as we age,” reported National Public Radio in 2019. NPR’s piece was triggered by a study in which researchers (some partly funded by the nut industry) followed nearly 145,000 people for 20 to 24 years. Compared to those who didn’t eat nuts, those who ate at least half an ounce of nuts a day (the equivalent of about 12 almonds) had a 23 percent lower risk of gaining roughly 10 pounds over any given four-year period. Why look at nuts and weight? “People think nuts are fattening because they’re high in fat,” explains Marion Nestle, the Paulette Goddard professor emerita of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University. That may lead people to avoid them.