"Western" Diet Is A Global Heart Risk

Fried And Salty Foods Are Bad For The Heart Wherever You Live, New Study Shows

(WebMD)  Globalization hasn't been good on the heart, according to a new study reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

The INTERHEART study, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, shows that the risk of heart attack crosses geographic boundaries and correlates strongly to the so-called Western diet that favors salty snacks and fried foods, and to a lesser extent, meat.

The risk, spread over five continents, is 30% higher for those who eat a Western diet, the study shows, than for those who adhere to a "prudent diet," or one rich in fruits and vegetables . An Oriental diet, which is high in tofu and other soy products, doesn't seem to lower or raise heart attack risk overall, according to the study.

Researchers out of McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, examined dietary trends among more than 16,000 participants in 52 countries who were recruited between 1999 and 2003. One-third of the participants, or 5,761 people, were interviewed after having a single heart attack; the remaining 10,646 had no known heart disease, including angina, and did not suffer from diabetes, hypertension, or high cholesterol. The mean age of participants was between 53 and 57 years old.

The study categorized eating patterns as Western, Oriental, and prudent. Participants answered written questions and were interviewed by medical personnel about their consumption of 19 food categories, including leafy greens, pickled foods, dairy products, and desserts. All answers were scored according to dietary risk.

The study accounted for other risk factors like smoking, body mass index , age, physical activity , sex, and geographical region in assessing overall heart attack risk. It did not track long-term changes in regional eating habits and their link with health problems.

Researchers concluded that the higher the regular intake of fried and salty foods, the higher the risk of heart attack regardless of which region of the world one resides in; prudent dietary habits carried the lowest risk. An Oriental diet seemed to be protective against heart attack in some regions of the world, but was not the best hedge overall, perhaps because of the high salt content of soy and other sauces common in the dining choices.

"The objective of this study was to understand the modifiable risk factors of heart attacks at a global level," says Salim Yusuf, DPhil, the study's senior author. "This study indicates that the same relationships that are observed in Western countries exist in different regions of the world."

Yusuf is a professor of medicine at McMaster University and is director of the Population Health Research Institute at Hamilton Health Sciences in Ontario, Canada.

The study acknowledges that serving sizes and preparation technique (the type of fat used in cooking, for example) could play a role in increasing heart attack risk in participants adhering to a Western diet.

[j_flood]

Wonder which was worse on the world''s health --- the spread of Christianity or the Western Diet.....

[honestabe8]

skinnyminny: good for you. i am a veggie, too, but my running is only about 25 miles a week (so far). The other day, a 300 lb woman looked down her nose at me when a third person told her I was a veggie. I didn''t make any smartazz comment to her, but I sort of let it go.

[skinnyminny2]

Western diet bad? No sh*t. That''s why I''m nearly vegetarian and run 60 miles a week! I can''t stand to see a large percentage of this culture mindlessly stuffing their faces with junk, in denial, and lazy to boot! Not me! People scoff at my adherance to diet and exercise, but my heart rate is around 50 along with good blood pressure and very low body fat. Another bonus is being able to wear a size 1 and look good in nearly everything.
People looove being in denial, don''t they?

[adt13t]

obese smeans in the primitive
infantile excuse ridden reverse evolution
crib
how about losing the fantasy belief systems
and establishing
adult responsibility
for consequences of choices made
and awareness of
basic consumption / expenditure patterns
moral/intelligence
hand/hand
or see the guild of w/h/o/r/e/s
and their brethren the pedophile
priests for a stuperstitious
excuse
don''t worry its not your fault
magic pill
requiring no effort or responsibility
force spoon fed grotesque
distorted progeny
lazy incompetent
missing in action
parenting?