Eating a handful of walnuts daily may lower the risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD), says a study. The study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, examined the effects of replacing some of the saturated fats in participants' diets with walnuts.

It found that when participants ate whole walnuts daily in combination with lower overall amounts of saturated fat, they had lower central blood pressure. For the study, the researchers recruited 45 participants with overweight or obesity between the 30-65 age group. Before the study began, participants were placed on a "run-in" diet for two weeks.