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Southern diet may raise your risk of heart attack
AL.com ^ | 8/10/15 | American Heart Association

Posted on 08/15/2015 1:21:38 PM PDT by Impala64ssa

If your dinner plate often includes fried chicken, gravy-smothered liver, buttered rolls and sweet tea — your heart may not find it so tasty. Eating a Southern-style diet is associated with an increased risk of heart disease, according to research in Circulation, an American Heart Association journal.

In a large-scale study that explored the relationship between dietary patterns and heart disease risk, researchers found that people who regularly ate traditional Southern fare — which they characterized as fried foods, fatty foods, eggs, processed meats, such as bacon and ham, organ meats like liver, and sugary drinks — were at a higher risk for suffering a heart attack or heart-related death during the next 5.8 years. Previous research also links the Southern diet with increased stroke risk.

The study is one of the first to include a regionally and socioeconomically diverse population. Researchers compared the dietary habits of more than 17,000 white and African-American adults in different regions of the United States. After adjusting for a combination of demographic and lifestyle factors, along with energy intake, they found:

People who most often ate foods conforming to the Southern dietary pattern had a 56 percent higher risk of heart disease compared to those who ate it less frequently. The highest consumers of the Southern diet tended to be male, African-American, those who had not graduated from high school or were residents of southern states (North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana.) No other dietary pattern was associated with the risk of heart disease. "Regardless of your gender, race, or where you live, if you frequently eat a Southern-style diet you should be aware of your risk of heart disease and try to make some gradual changes to your diet," said James M. Shikany, Dr.P.H. lead researcher and a nutritional epidemiologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham's Division of Preventive Medicine. "Try cutting down the number of times you eat fried foods or processed meats from every day to three days a week as a start, and try substituting baked or grilled chicken or vegetable-based foods."

Researchers used data from participants in the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study of white and African-American men and women aged 45 or older enrolled from 2003 to 2007. Participants were screened by telephone and then given an in-home physical exam and food questionnaire that asked how often and how much, on average, they consumed the foods during the previous year.

Researchers grouped the types of foods the participants regularly ate into five dietary patterns: the "convenience" pattern was comprised mostly of pasta dishes, Mexican food, Chinese food, mixed dishes and pizza; the "plant-based" pattern which was mostly vegetables, fruits, cereal, beans, yogurt, poultry and fish; the "sweets" pattern which consisted of added sugars, desserts, chocolate, candy and sweetened breakfast foods; the "alcohol/salads" was characterized by beer, wine, liquor, green leafy vegetables, tomatoes and salad dressings, and the "Southern" pattern, which was an eating pattern that the researchers observed to a greater extent in the Southeastern United States, included added fats, fried food, eggs and egg dishes, organ meats, processed meats and sugar-sweetened beverages.

Every six months, the participants were interviewed via telephone about their general health status and hospitalizations for nearly six years. For this study, the researchers only included participants who had no known heart disease at the beginning of the study.


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Society
KEYWORDS: food; southernculure
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To: onedoug; stylecouncilor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtLqmWt2h2g


61 posted on 08/15/2015 3:20:35 PM PDT by windcliff
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To: cva66snipe

Try this dish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKIHAvTuDEQ


62 posted on 08/15/2015 3:22:36 PM PDT by WorkingClassFilth
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To: Impala64ssa

Best food in the world is

Chicken fried steak.
Fried catfish.
Fried chicken.
Bacon.
Not necessarily in that order.

Everything else is just food.


63 posted on 08/15/2015 3:30:01 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (Let Baal plead for Baal because one has destroyed his altar!)
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To: FatherofFive

God was surely in favor of grains.


64 posted on 08/15/2015 3:37:45 PM PDT by smalltownslick
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To: mlo

Not hard to leave that out.


65 posted on 08/15/2015 3:42:23 PM PDT by smalltownslick
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To: cripplecreek

“Hot Pockets”...one of Jim Gavigan’s finest.


66 posted on 08/15/2015 3:44:58 PM PDT by moovova
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

A lot of fried in that, that’s really the problem I think.


67 posted on 08/15/2015 3:52:40 PM PDT by BeadCounter
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To: smokingfrog

Oh dear...that picture caused me to drool all over the keyboard.

At work we have a lunch outing planned for next month to Babes...which I adore (I don’t fry chicken at home any more). I have made a deal with myself to be good until then so I can eat guilt free.

Dang it...I guess I’ll go make a salad and pretend it looks like your picture.


68 posted on 08/15/2015 3:55:26 PM PDT by berdie
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To: moovova

And he’s mostly OK for older kids to watch.


69 posted on 08/15/2015 3:57:29 PM PDT by cripplecreek (Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.)
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To: Impala64ssa

.
>> “Eating a Southern-style diet is associated with an increased risk of heart disease, according to research in Circulation, an American Heart Association journal.” <<

.
This is BS from top to bottom.

Fred and Alice Otoboni’s research proves the opposite conclusively.

Animal fats, and certain saturated vegetable fats, are key to heart health.
.


70 posted on 08/15/2015 4:03:35 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: Impala64ssa

Bullshite

I’ve had two open heart surgeries and a pacemaker

It wasn’t the southern food

It was drop dead gorgeous but batshit crazy evil women

They’ll kill you one way or another

But what a glorious way to go


71 posted on 08/15/2015 4:06:51 PM PDT by wardaddy (My ears are bleeding....FOX ..all I hear are shrill high pitched whiney women taking over each other)
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To: tflabo

.
>> “I loves me some fried chicked but the stomach no likey the grease anymore” <<

.
Then your pancreas is no longer functioning.

It should be making enzymes that cause your body to metabolize the fats.

Perhaps you’re just eating too much starch and grains for your body to function.
.


72 posted on 08/15/2015 4:07:23 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: FatherofFive

.
>> “No refined Sugar. No Grains. No processed foods. Eat everything else.” <<

.
That is a good start.

But starchy vegetables need to be kept to just one serving per week too.
.


73 posted on 08/15/2015 4:11:27 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: editor-surveyor
Animal fats, and certain saturated vegetable fats, are key to heart health.

That's absolutely right and study after study has proved it. Simply put, the AHA is an anti-Southern liberal outfit. Likewise the central government's "food pyramid" is hogwash. The high fat content of traditional Southern dishes is a recipe for a long, happy life. Evidence is clear on the matter as these pictures vividly show.

Ted Cruz, vibrant: Southern diet Bernie Sanders, frail: Yankee diet

74 posted on 08/15/2015 4:13:11 PM PDT by re_nortex (DP - that's what I like about Texas)
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To: FatherofFive

no sugar, lots of whole grains, poultry and fish, occasional red meat, dairy as a garnish.


75 posted on 08/15/2015 4:14:12 PM PDT by muir_redwoods (Freedom isn't free, liberty isn't liberal and you'll never find anything Right on the Left)
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To: roamer_1

.
>> “And I will say that I doubt that sweet tea is any where near as bad for folks as soda pop is.” <<

.
‘Pends on what it is sweetened with, and how sweet.
.


76 posted on 08/15/2015 4:15:17 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: discostu

,
>> “Comfort Food is hard on the waste-line and the heart” <<

.
Just the starchy part.

The animal fats are very good for your heart, as long as the starch is eliminated.
.


77 posted on 08/15/2015 4:17:47 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: Impala64ssa

I’d rather die 10 years earlier than eat like a Californian.


78 posted on 08/15/2015 4:17:47 PM PDT by catfish1957 (I display the Confederate Battle Flag with pride in honor of my brave ancestors who fought w/ valor)
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To: Impala64ssa
Jake: Bring me four fried chickens and a Coke.

Elwood: And some dry white toast please

79 posted on 08/15/2015 4:18:41 PM PDT by RckyRaCoCo
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To: RushIsMyTeddyBear

Leave our damn food and culture alone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I agree! My hubby’s grandparents lived to be in their 80”s and 90’s his parents are in their 80’s still alive AND they cooked everything with lard. My family same thing, I also cook the same way. How long do people want to live?


80 posted on 08/15/2015 4:21:29 PM PDT by DAVEY CROCKETT (1 John 2:22...the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist...)
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