The media went nuts recently over news from NMSU nutritional scientists that eating pecans can lower rates of the bad cholesterol linked to heart disease.

Word of the research results, reported in the March 2000 issue of the "Journal of the American Dietetic Association", spread nationwide as the Associated Press, Reuters and even Paul Harvey covered the story.

It's gone a lot of different places, says Wanda Morgan, who coauthored the study with former graduate student Beverly Clayshulte. We've really been able to change some minds about pecans in the diet.

A sentence summarizing the results of the research found its way into "Self" magazine. That's pretty mainstream, Morgan says.

The researchers found that eating about three-quarters of a cup of pecans a day lowered bad cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein cholesterol) 6 percent after eight weeks. Total cholesterol was lowered as well.

The research shows that we don't have to be afraid of pecans and the fat in pecans, Morgan says. Pecans can be part of a balanced and varied diet.

The eight-week study was funded by NMSU's Agricultural Experiment Station and a grant from the Western Pecan Growers Association.

We just are really excited about this because pecans taste so good and to find out that they're good for you, too, is good news for our pecan growers and good news for the general public as well, Morgan says.

Take two: NMSU nutritional scientist Wanda Morgan found that eating about two handfuls of pecans a day can lower bad cholesterol.

The findings add to a growing body of research that counters notions that people should avoid eating nuts. Similar studies have been conducted with almonds and walnuts.

Nuts were really getting beat up on, Morgan says. Nutritionists and other health care professionals were telling folks to stay away from nuts because they are high in fat.

It's true that nuts are high in fat and calories. Pecans, for example, are 53 percent fat by weight. Three-quarters of a cup (about 68 grams) contains 459 calories and 47 grams of fat. But 29 grams of that comes in the form of monounsaturated fat-the good fat that contributes to a balanced and varied diet, Morgan explains.

We don't have to run away from pecans, she says. We just need to keep in mind the amount of fat they contain and balance that with the total amount of calories and fat we consume during the day.

In the study, participants in the treatment group were told to eat their daily pecan rations either as snacks or part of their regular meals. They were not allowed to eat any other nuts during the study. Partici-pants assigned to the control group were told to eat as they usually do, except to avoid all nuts.

We had people come up with all kinds of interesting ways to work the pecans into their diets, Morgan says. Folks had them for breakfast on cereal and pancakes. They sprinkled them on salads. Some even took them to Dairy Queen and had them put into Blizzards.

Advice about healthful ways to work nuts into meals has spread, too. It's not just pecan pie anymore, Morgan says. People are actually listening. Grocery stores are starting to market pecans as a health food-the research is helping change a food trend.

Morgan's research differed from other nut studies in that participants were allowed to choose what they ate, instead of following a restricted, laboratory-type diet. We wanted to mimic as much as we could what people really did with their daily meals to see if we could still get some of the benefits that were showing up with the other studies.

Also in Morgan's study, participants ate a smaller amount of nuts than in previous nut studies. In future research, she plans to test varying amounts of nuts and to control for age and gender differences among study participants.