Western Diet Increases Stroke Risk

CALGARYA high-calorie, high-sugar, high-sodium diet nicknamed the cafeteria diet" dramatically increases the risk of stroke or death at a younger age in rats after only two months, according to a new study presented at the Canadian Stroke Congress.

Researchers gave sedentary rats that were at an age roughly equivalent to 16 to 22 years in humans at the time of disease onset unlimited access to both nutritional food pellets and a daily selection of common snack food items, including cookies, sausage and cupcakes. Animals were also given access to both water and a 30% sucrose solution designed to imitate soft drinks.

Like humans, the animals greatly preferred to consume the snacks. The researchers found the diet induced most symptoms of metabolic syndromea combination of high levels of cholesterol, blood sugar, blood pressure and obesityafter only two months.

I think well soon start to see people in their 30s or 40s having strokes, having dementia, because of this junk food diet," said lead researcher Dr. Dale Corbett, scientific director of the Heart and Stroke Foundation Centre for Stroke Recovery. Young people will have major, major problems much earlier in life."

Corbett also highlighted the importance of preventing metabolic syndrome with regular exercise and a balanced diet. Were not sure whether metabolic syndrome can be reversed. If it cant, and we continue to live and eat like this, then were each a ticking time bomb of health problems," he said.

In January 2011, researchers at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson examined the role of fat and cholesterol in breast cancer development using a mouse model. The results showed mice fed a Western diet and predisposed to develop mammary tumors, can develop larger tumors that are faster growing and metastasize more easily, compared to animals eating a control diet.