Heart risk can be slashed by a handful of nuts
EATING a handful of nuts twice a week can slash the risk of deadly cardiovascular disease by almost a quarter, according to research.
Eaten unprocessed, all types of the popular snack help to prevent the blocked blood vessels that cause heart attacks and strokes, scientists found.
Regularly eating walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, cashews, pistachios, pecans and peanuts achieved dramatic results compared with those who rarely or never ate nuts.
In a 30-year study of more than 200,000 adults, those who ate any such tree nuts twice a week were 23 per cent less likely to develop cardiovascular disease.
Eating them more than twice a week reduced the risk by 15 per cent.
The same amount of peanuts, which are technically legumes, cut the risk of cardiovascular disease by 15 and 13 per cent respectively, while walnuts cut the risk by 21 per cent and 19 per cent.
Author Dr Marta Guasch-Ferre, a nutritionist at Harvard University in Boston, 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 population.”
Cardiovascular diseases involve the heart and blood vessels. With coronary heart disease, fat builds up on the walls of the arteries supplying blood to the heart.
The condition is the UK’s biggest killer, affecting 2.3 million Britons and causing 69,000 heart attacks 160,000 deaths each year.
Experts last night welcomed the study, published in the Journal Of The American College Of Cardiology.
Professor Jeremy Pearson, associate medical director of the British Heart Foundation, said: “This large study supports previous research that suggests people who regularly eat raw nuts have a lower risk of developing heart disease. However there could be many reasons for this, including the possibility that people who eat plain nuts are more likely to have better diets overall.
“This study focused on the intake of raw, often unprocessed nuts, which are very different to roasted and salted nuts that often come higher in salt and sugar.”
Nuts have been found to protect against a host of serious illnesses including cancer, diabetes, lung conditions and dementia.
Dr Emilio Ros, an expert on nutrition at the Hospital Clinic, Barcelona, who reviewed the results said: “Ideally further investigations should test the effects of long-term consumption of nuts supplemented into the usual diet on hard cardiometabolic events.
“In the meantime raw nuts, if possible unpeeled and 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 ageing.” and