 Background: Peanuts and tree nuts almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios and walnuts are an important source of unsaturated fatty acids, vegetable protein, and fibre, as well as minerals, vitamins, and phytonutrients. The FDA has permitted health claims for tree nuts for cardiovascular disease risk reduction and the cardiovascular benefits of nuts is acknowledged FDA, 2015; Bao et al., 2013; Sabate et al., 2010; however, intake of tree nuts is low in Canada. Based on the 2004 Canadian Community Health Survey CCHS, 5 of Canadians consumed nuts on any given day with a mean intake of 18 gday in those consuming nuts PHAC, 2004. This intake level is far below the 42 gday amount recommended by the FDA for cardiovascular risk reduction. One of the barriers to increasing the consumption of nuts is the perception that they may contribute to weight gain more than other healthy foods owing to their high energy density. With the rise in overweight and obesity and its downstream cardiometabolic complications, heart and diabetes associations have cautioned against the over consumption of nuts at the same time that they recommend them for heart health Sievenpiper et al., 2013; Evert et al., 2014; Anderson et al., 2013. In a series of earlier systematic reviews and meta-analyses, we have shown that nuts improve glycemic control and metabolic syndrome criteria, findings which run contrary to any expected weight gain Viguiliouk et al., 2014; Blanco Mejia et al., 2014. Although an earlier systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled trials showed a lack of effect of nut intake on body weight Flores-Mateo et al., 2013, it remains unclear whether nuts have an increasing, neutral, or even decreasing effect on a broader set of markers of adiposity. 