Fat causes strokes by (a) building up on artery walls, and (b) causing us to become overweight which in turn stresses all other bodily systems and causes hypertension.
Fat causes strokes folks.
Sorry, there's no way around it.
Fat causes strokes folks.
That's an interesting assertion. I am not a doctor, and I don't know a blessed thing about biochemistry, but I decided to go make a Google search of "fatty food" and "stroke". To my surprise, there are a number of articles, both popular and scientific, that discount any undesirable correlation between the two; there is at least one popular article that has it that even fatty junk food is actually correlated with less strokes (the last one quoted in this post, from the Telegraph.)
An abstract from an article from the British Medical Journal:
1 Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA, 2 Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health
Correspondence to: K He hpkhe@channing.harvard.edu
Abstract
Introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion
References
Objective: To examine the association between intake of total fat, specific types of fat, and cholesterol and risk of stroke in men.
Design and setting Health professional follow up study with 14 year follow up.
Participants 43 732 men aged 40-75 years who were free from cardiovascular diseases and diabetes in 1986.
Main outcome measure Relative risk of ischaemic and haemorrhagic stroke according to intake of total fat, cholesterol, and specific types of fat.
Results During the 14 year follow up 725 cases of stroke occurred, including 455 ischaemic strokes, 125 haemorrhagic stokes, and 145 strokes of unknown type. After adjustment for age, smoking, and other potential confounders, no evidence was found that the amount or type of dietary fat affects the risk of developing ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke. Comparing the highest fifth of intake with the lowest fifth, the multivariate relative risk of ischaemic stroke was 0.91 (95% confidence interval 0.65 to 1.28; P for trend = 0.77) for total fat, 1.20 (0.84 to 1.70; P = 0.47) for animal fat, 1.07 (0.77 to 1.47; P = 0.66) for vegetable fat, 1.16 (0.81 to 1.65; P = 0.59) for saturated fat, 0.91 (0.65 to 1.28; P = 0.83) for monounsaturated fat, 0.88 (0.64 to 1.21; P = 0.25) for polyunsaturated fat, 0.87 (0.62 to 1.22; P = 0.42) for trans unsaturated fat, and 1.02 (0.75 to 1.39; P = 0.99) for dietary cholesterol. Intakes of red meats, high fat dairy products, nuts, and eggs were also not appreciably related to risk of stroke.
Conclusions: These findings do not support associations between intake of total fat, cholesterol, or specific types of fat and risk of stroke in men.
In fact, even the original article made me think that it doesn't support any additional mortality to the consumption of southern cooking. Specifically it adduced no figures such as people who eat southern cooking live on average N years less than similiar folks who don't. In fact, strokes are correlated with older folks -- and if the assertion is that southerners are having more, maybe it's because they have more older folks in the South?
Here's another abstract on the same subject from the Journal of the American Medical Association:
Inverse association of dietary fat with development of ischemic stroke in men
M. W. Gillman, L. A. Cupples, B. E. Millen, R. C. Ellison and P. A. Wolf Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
CONTEXT: A few ecological and cohort studies in Asian populations suggest an inverse association of the intake of both fat and saturated fat with risk of stroke. However, data among western populations are scant. OBJECTIVE: To examine the association of stroke incidence with intake of fat and type of fat among middle-aged US men during 20 years of follow-up. DESIGN AND SETTING: The Framingham Heart Study, a population-based cohort study. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 832 men, aged 45 through 65 years, who were free of cardiovascular disease at baseline (1966-1969). MEASUREMENTS AND DATA ANALYSIS: The diet of each subject was assessed at baseline by a single 24-hour dietary recall, from which intakes of energy and macronutrients were estimated. In Kaplan-Meier analyses, we calculated age-adjusted cumulative incidence rates of stroke. Using Cox regression, we estimated stroke incidence relative risks during 20 years of follow-up. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Incidence of ischemic stroke, which occurred in 61 subjects during the follow-up period. RESULTS: Mean intakes were 10975 kJ for energy; 114 g (39% of energy) for total fat; 44 g (15%) for saturated fat; 46 g (16%) for monounsaturated fat; and 16 g (5%) for polyunsaturated fat. Risk of ischemic stroke declined across the increasing quintile of total fat (log-rank trend P=.008), saturated fat (P=.002), and monounsaturated fat (P=.008) but not polyunsaturated fat (P=.33). The age- and energy-adjusted relative risk for each increment of 3% of energy from total fat was 0.85 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.78-0.94); for an increment of 1% from saturated fat, 0.91 (95% CI, 0.85-0.98); and for 1% from monounsaturated fat, 0.89 (95% CI, 0.83-0.96). Adjustment for cigarette smoking, glucose intolerance, body mass index, blood pressure, blood cholesterol level, physical activity, and intake of vegetables and fruits and alcohol did not materially change the results. Too few cases of hemorrhagic stroke (n=14) occurred to draw inferences. CONCLUSION: Intakes of fat, saturated fat, and monounsaturated fat were associated with reduced risk of ischemic stroke in men.
From the Department of Public Health Medicine, Institute of Community Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki-ken (H.I., M.K.); Osaka Medical Center for Health Science and Promotion, Osaka (S.S., A.K., H.I., Y.N., T.O., T.S.); Tokyo Bunka Junior College, Tokyo (U.U.); and Center for Medical Science, Ibaraki Prefectural University of Health Science, Ibaraki-ken (K.K.), Japan.
Correspondence to Dr Hiroyasu Iso, Department of Public Health Medicine, Institute of Community Medicine, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken 305-8575, Japan. E-mail fvgh5640@mb.infoweb.ne.jp
Background and Purpose— The role of serum fatty acids as a risk factor for stroke and stroke subtypes is largely unknown.
Methods— A prospective nested case-control study of Japanese 40 to 85 years of age was conducted through the use of frozen serum samples from 7450 participants in cardiovascular risk surveys collected from 1984 to 1989 for 1 community and 1989 to 1992 for the other 2 communities. By the end of 1998, we identified 197 incident strokes whose subtypes were confirmed by imaging studies. Three controls per case were selected by matching for sex, age, community, year of serum storage, and fasting status.
Results— Compared with controls, total (n=197), hemorrhagic (n=75), and ischemic (n=122) strokes had similar proportions of n3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, lower proportions of linoleic and arachidonic acids, and higher proportions of saturated and monosaturated acids, determined by gas chromatography. The multivariate odds ratios associated with a 1-SD increase in linoleic acid (5%) after adjustment for hypertension, diabetes, serum total cholesterol, and other cardiovascular risk factors were 0.72 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.59 to 0.89] for total stroke, 0.66 (95% CI, 0.49 to 0.88) for ischemic stroke, 0.63 (95% CI, 0.46 to 0.88) for lacunar infarction, and 0.81 (95% CI, 0.59 to 1.12) for hemorrhagic stroke. The respective odds ratios for saturated fatty acids (4%) were 1.13 (95% CI, 1.05 to 1.65), 1.35 (95% CI, 1.01 to 1.79), 1.44 (95% CI, 1.03 to 2.01), and 1.21 (95% CI, 0.82 to 1.80). Further adjustment for other fatty acids attenuated these relations, but the relation between linoleic acid and risk of ischemic stroke remained statistically significant.
Conclusions— A higher intake of linoleic acid may protect against ischemic stroke, possibly through potential mechanisms of decreased blood pressure, reduced platelet aggregation, and enhanced deformability of erythrocyte cells.
Key Words: fatty acids • fatty acids, unsaturated • follow-up studies • linoleic acid • stroke
EDITOR—The finding of He et al that intake of total fat, cholesterol, or specific types of fat are not associated with stroke does not surprise those who have followed the scientific literature about the diet-heart idea from the very beginning.1 What surprises me is their statement that there is strong evidence that type of dietary fat predicts risk of coronary heart disease.
Except for trans fat there is no such evidence at all. In a review2 of the relevant ecological, dynamic population, cross sectional, case-control, and cohort studies almost all of them were inconclusive or, most often, contradictive, and in two meta-analyses of the dietary trials2-4 the number of deaths in treatment and control groups were identical.
There is no support either from the study used as evidence by He et al because the weak association found between intake of saturated fat and coronary heart disease in that study disappeared after adjustment for other risk factors.5
To be fair, I did also find one article that suggested that there might be a correlation, especially if you throw in smoking, overconsumption of salt, and alcohol consumption. But it appears to me that there is at least some question as to be any role of southern food as a cause of strokes -- and as I said before, the strong correlation between age and strokes could easily mean that seeing more strokes in a population might just mean that people are just living longer in that population.
And for some popular articles:
A stroke of luck for fatty food lovers
Take heart, eating fatty food may cut strokes
And here's the text from that last article:
Take heart, eating fatty food may cut strokes
By Celia Hall, Medical Editor
EATING fatty junk food might lower the risk of having a stroke, American scientists claimed yesterday.
A team from Harvard Medical School found that a three per cent rise in total fat consumption reduced the risk of a stroke by 15 per cent.
Their findings come from new analysis of the data in the Framingham Heart Study, a renowned 20-year project involving nearly 1,000 men aged 45 to 65.
Although Dr Matthew Gillman, of Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care in Boston, Massachusetts, warned that follow-up studies were needed to confirm the findings, he said: "Nonetheless, the results of this study raise the possibility that restriction of fat intake among residents of Western societies. . . does not decrease and could increase overall risk of ischaemic stroke."
The report in the Journal of the American Medical Association says increased amounts of saturated fat (animal fat) and of monosaturated fat (olive and nut oils) had this effect while polyunsaturated fat, found in fish and vegetable oils and said to be healthier than animal fat, did not.
Saturated fat, found in meat and dairy products, is usually thought to be the least healthy type of fat to eat because of a link with heart disease. A spokesman for the British Stroke Association said yesterday that the new research confused an already complicated message to consumers: "There is very good evidence that obesity increases a person's risk of developing a stroke.
"However, at present the evidence of any link between the risk of stroke and intake of individual dietary components is unclear. The message from the various studies which have taken place is very confused.
"There are a number of on-going studies which may provide clarification on this. In the meantime, there is no reason to change the general dietary advice which forms part of many health education programmes."
The British Heart Foundation said it was surprised by the findings and needed to see the full details before making a proper comment. A spokesman said: "It's very curious, because what we have here is an apparent paradox. There are on-going trials of drugs called statins which lower cholesterol, and use of those drugs is associated with a reduced risk of strokes. More follow-up work has to be carried out."
FAT may cause these things, but EATING FAT has not been proven to do so.