Between regular milk and low-fat milk, you might be better off with the latter. According to a recent study published in the journal Stroke, keeping your dairy products low-fat may reduce your long-term risk of getting strokes.

Researchers studied 74,961 Swedish adults for 10 years to find out if their dairy intake had any influence on their risk for stroke. While the participants were initially free of heart disease, the authors tallied 4,089 cases of stroke by the end of the study. Those who consumed an average of four low-fat dairy products a day had a 12-percent lower risk for stroke and a 13-percent lower risk for ischemic stroke compared to those who consumed high-fat dairy foods.

While researchers have yet to find a concrete explanation for the lowered risk, they believe that the calcium, potassium, magnesium, and vitamin D found in low-fat dairy products have something to do with it. Want to take better care of your health? Eating less fat in general can help you. The less of it you consume, the lower the chances your arteries will harden, which in turn lowers your risk of getting a cardiovascular disease.

(Photo by Uros Kotnik via sxc.hu)