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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 4, 1993                   TAG: 9303040042
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: BOSTON                                LENGTH: Short

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EATING NUTS HAILED AS AID TO THE HEART

Could the next health craze be, quite literally, nuts? A new study concludes that they lower cholesterol.

Just how is a matter of dispute. But researchers have assembled two lines of evidence suggesting that nuts in general, and walnuts in particular, are good for the heart.

"Including walnuts in the everyday diet may be an easy way to lower the risk of heart disease by improving the cholesterol profile," said Dr. Joan Sabate of Loma Linda University, who directed the latest study.

The study, funded by the California Walnut Commission, was published in today's New England Journal of Medicine.

The study began with 31,208 Seventh-day Adventists, who generally avoid smoking and drinking. To researchers' surprise, those who ate nuts at least five times a week had only half the risk of fatal heart attacks as those who had nuts less than once a week.

Next, they put 18 healthy volunteers on two carefully controlled diets for two months. One was a nut-free version of a standard low-cholesterol diet; the second was nutritionally similar, except 20 percent of calories came from walnuts.

On the no-nuts diet, the volunteers' cholesterol levels fell 6 percent. When they switched to the walnut diet, their cholesterol declined an additional 12 percent. Everyone's cholesterol dropped while eating nuts; the average decrease was 22 points, from 182 to 160.

Why? That's unclear.

- Associated Press

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