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By Dr. Brian McDonough, Medical Editor
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — If you're looking for a healthy snack that is great for your heart and your GI tract, consider chomping on walnuts.
That's the news from a Penn State study in a major nutrition journal, and it will not take a lot of walnuts.
Eating two to three ounces of walnuts a day as part of a healthy diet could be a good way to improve gut health and reduce the risk of heart disease. Previous work has demonstrated that eating whole walnuts daily lowers cholesterol levels and blood pressure.
According to the research, changes to the bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract — also known as the gut microbiome — may help explain the cardiovascular benefits of walnuts.
