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.
Jim Gaff-Again
I had that problem for the longest time - something in the grease made me violently ill... Then I happened to eat a farm fresh chicken (for the first time in decades), and guess what? No worries. Eat it all the time now. Makes me wonder what they are doing to those store-bought birds...
Well said! Some of the healthiest, most long-lived people in the world are Southern and enjoy the distinctive dishes of the region.
As much as I admire President Calvin Coolidge, he died far too young, largely because of his food choices -- a Yankee diet. And as much as the contemptible Jimmy Carter deserves all the scorn he gets (and more), he's been quite healthy until recently. Why? His Southern diet! If only he had embraced the values of the South as well as its cuisine, he could have been a good man instead of a slave to liberalism.
“I’m a good ol’ Rebel”. But I try to watch the fat content...but for the cheese.
I’m privileged to know several genuine southerners who wear the redneck label proudly. They come from long-lived lineage. Most of the parents and grandparents are alive and in their nineties. Many relatives have lived past 100. I always get a second helping of whatever they’re having.
There's a school of thought that a high fat diet is actually good for you. It's known variously as paleo, keto or caveman. A lot of liberal junk "science" over the past few decades pushing a low fat diet has been discredited. That's why I made the point a few posts back that Southern food choices are actually quite good.
I can’t think of anyone that would disagree.
It is damn tasty and you are less likely to have Moslims hanging around to shoot the place up.
"Ceterum censeo 0bama esse delendam."
'La bonne cuisine est la base du véritable bonheur.' - Auguste Escoffier
(Good food is the foundation of genuine happiness.)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
One can search out those lists of “fattest cities”, all kinds of cities are on there, it seems Mexican food also plays a part in some cities. As they say, moderation.
I stay away from as much processed and store bought as possible. Most tend to trigger a couple of hours of migraine misery.
This is the same AHA that told us to eat margarine instead of butter for decades.
Just dust the chicken with flour instead of dipping in a batter, keep your oil the right temp, and have your chicken pieces cold not room temp when you drop them in the hot oil and it wont be greasy.
Native of SC farm country and I have generally despised most southern food. No idea why. Ate a lot of peanut butter.
Traditional southern food can be unkind to sedentary living. Get out and burn it off, break a sweat as your body was intended. The salt will be sweated out, the fat used as fuel instead of stored. That’s the problem, it’s a diet for an active, hardworking people.
I’m not big on pork but like my fried flounder filet so I guess I could function under a loose version of kosher.
“That’s the problem, it’s a diet for an active, hardworking people.”
I have to say they all work like rented mules. Not much fat on them. (Did I mention scratch made cakes and pies? Homemade ice-cream, too.)
Me too - for the most part... Gone back to the sort of food this article is referring to - Within reason - And I feel WAY better... better than I have in years...
Well no sh!t, but at least you’ll die happy.
I’ve got plenty of problems just from being me that have confounded the quacks all my life but cutting the processed stuff helps a lot.
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