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.

While they didn’t note whether one type of yogurt was better than the other or why it could be beneficial, they said the treat may help prevent clogging of the heart’s blood vessels.

In fact, higher dairy consumption has been previously linked to positive effects on "cardiovascular disease-related comorbidities such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and insulin resistance," they wrote.

Now the researchers hope to continue their investigations to confirm their findings and to help doctors better treat hytensive patients.

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