Cashew is native to northeastern Brazil, where Indigenous peoples used both the nut and the accompanying "cashew apple" (the fruit the nut grows from) for food and traditional remedies long before Portuguese colonizers encountered it in the 16th century. Portuguese traders subsequently carried cashew trees to their colonies in Africa and India, where it took root so successfully that India and parts of West Africa are now among the world's largest cashew producers — a striking geographic transplant from its South American origin.
Cashew's modern research profile sits in an interesting position relative to other tree nuts covered in this Atlas: while walnut and almond have accumulated large, consistent bodies of cholesterol-lowering evidence, cashew's own dedicated research tells a genuinely more mixed story.
Cashew stands in real contrast to walnut and almond elsewhere in this Atlas, where cholesterol evidence is large and consistent. A dedicated systematic review and meta-analysis of cashew nut intake (392 participants across included trials) found cashew consumption had no significant effect on lipid profile or diastolic blood pressure overall. A separate, well-designed randomized controlled trial testing the FDA-qualified serving size for the tree-nut health claim found no significant effect on any primary cardiovascular risk factor, including blood lipids, blood pressure, or blood glucose.
One notable positive exception exists in a specific population: a 12-week randomized controlled trial in Asian Indians with type 2 diabetes found cashew consumption significantly reduced systolic blood pressure and increased HDL cholesterol — but this positive finding hasn't been replicated in the broader, more mixed evidence base, and researchers reviewing the field describe existing trials as producing "conflicting results." Given this genuine inconsistency, and null results in the largest dedicated meta-analysis, "Limited" is the accurate, comparison-informed rating — cashew simply doesn't have the same evidence weight behind it that walnut and almond do.
Eaten raw or roasted; the accompanying cashew apple fruit is eaten fresh or fermented into juice or wine in regions where cashew is grown.