Let’s start with some good and tasty news: Pecans (as in a pecan-pomegranate salad or the newly available pecan milk, not sugary pecan pie) can help you stay healthy in important ways. And because 80% of the world's pecans are grown in the U.S., they’re never in short supply.

A study out of the University of Georgia found that eating 2.4 ounces of pecans daily for eight weeks cut LDL cholesterol levels by 6% to 9%, substantially reducing the risk of coronary artery disease.

And the benefits of lowering LDL cholesterol go beyond protecting your heart health; it may also help protect you from cancer.

A study in the journal Nature Communications reveals that chronically high cholesterol levels increase the risk of breast cancer and lead to worse outcomes from most types of cancer, because the cholesterol protects metastasizing cancer cells, allowing them to spread. 

To get your bad cholesterol down and good cholesterol up:

• Add pecans (and walnuts) to your plant-centered diet; ditch red and processed meats and added sugars.

• Walk at least an hour a day five days a week to lower LDL cholesterol, and consider cycling to raise heart-healthy HDL cholesterol.

If you take those steps but still have trouble getting your LDL to 100 or lower, ask your doctor about taking a statin. It not only clears out excess LDL, it reduces inflammation and might help treat and inhibit some cancers, and helps manage liver disease.

If you're intolerant of statins, ask about new alternative meds.