You may be able to better avoid heart attacks with this common snack, study says

What’s your go-to snack? If it’s yogurt, you may be in luck because it may help lower your risk for cardiovascular disease, according to a new report.

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Researchers from Boston University and Harvard University, recently conducted a trial, published in American Journal of Hypertension, to determine how high intake of the food could be associated with lower cardiovascular disease risk among hypertensive people.

"We hypothesized that long-term yogurt intake might reduce the risk of cardiovascular problems since some previous small studies had shown beneficial effects of fermented dairy products," the authors wrote in a statement.

For the assessment, they pulled from a study that examined 55,000 women, aged 30-55, with high blood pressure, and they looked at another that analyzed 18,000 men, aged 40-75. The participants, which were followed for up to 30 years, completed a questionnaire that asked about their diets and any physician-diagnosed events, like strokes or heart attacks, that might have occurred.
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After analyzing the results, they found that higher intakes of yogurt were associated with a 30 percent reduction in risk of cardiac arrest for women and a 19 percent decrease for men.

Furthermore, men and women, who ate more than two servings of yogurt a week had about a 20 percent lower risk of major coronary heart disease or stroke.

“Our results provide important new evidence that yogurt may benefit heart health alone or as a consistent part of a diet rich in fiber-rich fruits, vegetables, and whole grains." they said.

Source :- ajc