(Image source from: A handful of almonds daily may boost health})

Eating a handful of almonds every day,  right from the childhood days can improve diet quality of a person, which may have numerous health benefits later in life, a recent study revealed.

A study was conducted on 28 parent-child pairs by the researchers from the from University of Florida.

According to the study, the parents were instructed to eat 42 grams of whole almonds daily and the children were encouraged to eat 14 grams of almonds each day, during the three week intervention portion of the study period.

The findings were published in the Journal of Nutrition Research, shows that, the average average Healthy Eating Index scores of participants were 53.7 for both, parents and children, at the beginning of the 14-week research duration.

After the almond addition, the average Healthy Eating Index score of parents and children increased to an average 61.4, that shows, the almond intervention can have great impact on  a person's diet quality.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA's) Dietary Guidelines for Americans, said that,  a score below 51 shows the poor diet and a score between 51 and 80  indicates a need of improvement, while a score over 80 reflects a good diet.

Lead researcher Alyssa Burns from University of Florida, said that, “the habits you have when you are younger are carried into adulthood, so if a parent is able to incorporate almonds or different healthy snacks into a child's diet, it is more likely that the child will choose those snacks later on in life."

"Some of the challenges that we saw were that the kids were getting bored with the almonds, or they did not like the taste of the almonds or the almond butter," Burns added.

"Adding a variety of fruits, vegetables and nuts to your diet can improve your overall diet quality," said Burns.

Nandini