FED:Diet a 'good guide to stroke prevention'

AAP General News (Australia)
12-13-2011
FED:Diet a 'good guide to stroke prevention'

A leading neurologist says the quality of a person's diet is a better guide to whether
someone will suffer a stroke than individual foods and nutrients.

Fish, chocolate, coffee, fruit and vegetables are all linked to lowering a person's
chance of having a stroke - while salt, meat and B vitamins have been blamed for raising
the risk.

However a review of a raft of international studies by Professor GRAEME HANKEY, head
of Royal Perth Hospital's stroke unit, has found much of the research out there is based
on unreliable evidence.

In his review, published in The Lancet Neurology journal today, Prof HANKEY says the
better predictors of stroke appeared to be whether a person's diet was healthy and if
they were obese because they ate too much.

Figures from the Stroke Foundation show Australians will suffer about 60-thousand new
and recurrent strokes this year - that's one stroke every 10 minutes.

AAP RTV bt/sw

KEYWORD: STROKE (SYDNEY)

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