In a cohort study of 2699 adult women participants from the 2013 to 2016 US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the association of tree nut consumption with sex hormone-binding globulin levels was assessed. Tree nut consumers were identified as those who ate tree nuts within the two 24-hours recall days. The associations between tree nut consumption and sex hormone-binding globulin were studied using least squares regression.

Results showed that among the participants, 234 women consumed tree nuts and tree nut consumption was positively associated with the levels of sex hormone-binding globulin. On further analysis, it was found that this positive association was present in premenopausal women but not in postmenopausal women. Furthermore, tree nut consumption remained independently related to higher circulating levels of sex hormone-binding globulin in premenopausal women irrespective of the percentage of energy derived from tree nuts or daily tree nut intake amount.