To prevent stroke, add a handful of nuts to your daily diet, a classic study finds.

Stroke is the leading cause of serious, long-term disability in the United States. Each year, approximately 795,000 people suffer a stroke. About 600,000 of these are first attacks, and 185,000 are recurrent attacks. Nearly three-quarters of all strokes occur in people over the age of 65.

Although initially published a few yeas ago, a study known PREDIMED is still hailed for demonstrating that nuts are an easy way to help lower stroke risk.

This Spanish study enrolled 7,447 people who were at risk for stroke because they were obese, diabetic, and/or they had high blood pressure and high cholesterol, but they had not suffered a heart attack or stroke.

Two-thirds of these groups were put on the Mediterranean diet. Each of these groups was provided either with extra virgin olive oil or nuts. The third group was the control group was told to avoid extra fat.

No group was given advice about portion control or exercise. The participants were followed for about five years.

This major study showed that the groups that followed the Mediterranean diet, along with the extra olive oil or nuts, were up to 30 percent less likely to suffer a heart attack, stroke, or cardiovascular death.

The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.