Researchers from Harvard Medical School revealed the biggest and most comprehensive study to date on the positive effects of eating nuts on cardiovascular health.
According to the November 13 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the study was conducted on 210,000 people who were followed up for more than 32 years to find out the link between eating Nuts and cardiovascular health.
The study is considered by cardiologists as the largest to date looking at frequency of nut consumption in relation to incident cardiovascular disease.
People who regularly eat nuts, including peanuts, walnuts and tree nuts, have a lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease or coronary heart disease compared to people who never or almost never eat nuts, the study concluded.
The researches of the study which holds the title "Eating Regular Variety of Nuts Associated With Lower Risk of Heart Disease" said they have found a consistent inverse association between total nut consumption and total cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease.
Also, after looking at individual nut consumption, eating walnuts one or more times per week was associated with a 19 percent lower risk of cardiovascular disease and 21 percent lower risk of coronary heart disease.
"Participants who ate peanuts or tree nuts two or more times per week had a 13 percent and 15 percent lower risk of cardiovascular disease, respectively, and a 15 percent and 23 percent, lower risk of coronary heart disease, respectively, compared to those who never consumed nuts", according to the study.
The researchers also found that eating peanuts and walnuts was inversely associated with the risk of stroke.
Marta Guasch-Ferre, PhD, lead author of the study and research fellow at the department of nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health said: “Our findings support recommendations of increasing the intake of a variety of nuts, as part of healthy dietary patterns, to reduce the risk of chronic disease in the general populations."
In an accompanying editorial comment, Dr. Emilio Ros, PhD of the Endocrinology and Nutrition service at the Hospital Clínic in Barcelona, said the findings strongly suggests an association between nut consumption and heart disease protection.
"Raw nuts, if possible unpeeled and otherwise unprocessed, may be considered as natural health capsules that can be easily incorporated into any heart-protective diet to further cardiovascular well-being and promote healthy aging," he added.
