BEIJING, April 15 (Xinhuanet) -- The U.S. government-recommended diet for lowering blood pressure can save people from heart attack and stroke, says a new study released in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine.

    The DASH diet, favors fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat milk and plant-based protein over meat.

    Researchers followed more than 88,000 healthy women for their food choices for almost 25 years and found that women whose eating habits similar to the diet were 24 percent less likely to have a heart attack and 18 percent less likely to have a stroke than women with more typical American diets.

    Women in the study were in their mid-30s to late 50s when the research began in the 1980s.

    Previous research has shown this kind of diet can help prevent high blood pressure and cholesterol

    Although the study only followed women, said Teresa Fung, the study's lead author from Simmons College, men would probably get similar benefits from the approach.

    The study provides the best evidence yet of important long-term benefits from a low blood pressure diet, said Dr. Laura Svetkey, director of Duke University's hypertension center.

 　(Agencies)