Munch on some walnuts if you want to keep heart diseases at bay

Dhwani Vora | May 3, 2019, 13:36 IST
It is always very important to take care of your well being. Be it physically, mentally or emotionally, do what's the best for you. In today's rat race, everybody only focuses on achieving materialistic goals of life at the cost of losing their mental peace and body health.

This is why, there are newer and newer diseases coming up each year related to some or the other organ of the body. And when it's related to our heart, it becomes all the more important to keep it safe and sheltered. That's also one and major reason why doctors and experts recommend on eating healthy food items to keep unhealthy habits at bay.

This brings us to the topic of eating healthy for the heart's health. And one very healthy food to munch on is walnuts. A handful of walnuts on a daily basis will reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, said by a study.

This study examined the effects of replacing a few saturated fats in participants' diet with walnuts. They found out that when these participants ate whole walnuts every single day in combination with lower overall amount of saturated fat, they automatically lowered the central blood pressure.

Th researchers recruited about 45 participants with an overweight or obesity issue who ranged in the age group of 30 to 65. Before they study kick started, the participants were on kept on a "run-in" diet for two weeks. Said Penny Kris-Etherton, Professor of Nutrition at the University of Pennsylvania, “When participants ate whole walnuts, they saw greater benefits than when they consumed a diet with a similar fatty acid profile as walnuts without eating the nut itself.”

Participants were assigned to one of three study diets for six weeks with a break between diet periods. All of the three diets substituted walnuts or vegetable oils for 5% of saturated fat content of the run-in diet.

Researchers found that diets that included walnuts benefited more and also lowered central diastolic blood pressure. Said Kris-Etherton, “Instead of reaching for fatty red meat or full-fat dairy products for a snack, consider having some skim milk and walnuts.”

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