The type of fat a person eats may influence their stroke risk more than the amount, according to new research to be presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2021.
Researchers analyzed the health of more than 117,000 healthcare professionals over 27 years, tracking data from two massive studies. Their analysis is the first to analyze the effect on stroke risk from fat derived from vegetable, dairy and non-dairy animal sources.
Sixty-three of study participants were women, the median age was 50 years old and 97% were white. All included healthcare workers were free of heart disease and cancer.
Participants were required to fill out a food frequency questionnaire that was used to determine the amount, source and types of fat that was part of their diets. Over the course of the study, 6,189 participants had a stroke; this included 2,967 ischemic strokes and 814 hemorrhagic strokes.
The group found that eating higher amounts of non-dairy fat was associated with a 16% elevated risk of stroke compared to eating lower amounts of non-dairy fat. Dairy fat was, meanwhile, not associated with a stroke risk.
Also, participants who ate the highest amount of vegetable fat and polyunsaturated fat had a 12% lower stroke risk compared to those who ate the lowest amount.
The striking findings continued. For example, the consumption of one more serving of total red meat daily translated into an 8% higher risk of stroke, and those who ate an additional serving of processed red meat had a 12% greater chance of stroke.
Eating less red and processed meat, trimming fat from meat, and cooking with non-tropical oils instead of lard or beef fat were all recommendations made to help limit your stroke risk.
“Based on our findings, we recommend for the general public to reduce consumption of red and processed meat, minimize fatty parts of unprocessed meat if consumed, and replace lard or tallow (beef fat) with non-tropical vegetable oils such as olive oil, corn or soybean oils in cooking in order to lower their stroke risk,” lead author Fenglei Wang, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the department of nutrition at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, said in a prepared statement.
Wang et al. also noted that an examination of subtypes of fat intake, such as separating saturated fat consumed from vegetable, dairy or non-dairy animal sources, would be helpful in better understanding the link between fat intake and the risk of stroke.
The authors pointed out that their study did have certain limitations.
For example, because it is an observational study, the results cannot establish a cause-and-effect association between fat consumption and stroke risk. Likewise, dietary intake was self-reported by the participants, which may result in errors related to memory recall.
Finally, because the study included predominantly health professionals of European ancestry, the findings “may not be generalizable to people from diverse racial and ethnic groups.”
More information on AHA Scientific Sessions 2021 can be found here.