Going nuts can help out

PEOPLE who regularly snack on a variety of nuts may face a lower risk of heart disease than people who don’t, said the largest study of its kind.

Eating five weekly servings of walnuts, peanuts or other kinds of tree nuts was linked to a 14 per cent lower risk of cardiovascular disease and a 20 per cent lower risk of fatal complications due to hardened arteries, said the report in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Walnuts appeared to be the healthiest option, according to the findings, based on more than 210,000 people who answered regular surveys as part of a nurses’ study that spanned 32 years.

“After looking at individual nut consumption, eating walnuts one or more times per week was associated with a 19 per cent lower risk of cardiovascular disease and 21 per cent lower risk of coronary heart disease,” said the report.

People who ate peanuts two or more times a week had a 13 per cent lower risk of heart disease than people who ate none.

Those who ate tree nuts, such as almonds, cashews, chestnuts and pistachios, had a 15 per cent lower risk of heart disease.

“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,” said lead author Marta Guasch- Ferre, a research fellow at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.