Eating more animal fat linked to higher risk of stroke: Study

People who favor vegetable oils and other plant foods as their source of fat generally had a lower risk of stroke over the years, a new study suggests.

The study was conducted with more than 100,000 health professionals in the US and published in the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2021.

Overall, the 20% of people with the highest intake of vegetable fats had a 12% lower risk of suffering a stroke over 27 years, compared to people with the lowest intake of those fats.

On the other end of the spectrum were people who got much of their dietary fat from meat. The 20% with the highest intake of those fats were 16% more likely to suffer a stroke, compared to the 20% with the lowest intake.

Many studies have looked at the relationship between dietary fat and stroke risk. This one focused on the food sources of that fat, said lead researcher Fenglei Wang, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.

And the findings, he said, favor replacing fat from red meat with vegetable oils like olive, soybean or corn.

The results come from 27 years of data from more than 117,000 health care professionals. The data was pulled from two of the largest and longest-running nutritional studies in the U.S.

Experts say that diet isn’t the only factor in stroke risk. Lifestyle behaviors like whether or not a person smokes, the amount of calories consumed, and the level of exercise all play a role.

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