It's common knowledge that fat can increase cholesterol, block arteries, and become a potential contributor to the risk of stroke, as well as other forms of heart ailment, not to mention diabetes, cancer, obesity, and a host of other health conditions.
Nevertheless, a CNN report specified it is the fat type, not the amount that seems to be causing the occurrence or increasing the risk of stroke.
Consuming plant-based fats is lowering the risk of stroke, a study presented Monday at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2021 indicated.
The research, which has not yet undergone peer review, showed people who consumed the most vegetable-based fats were 12 percent less likely to have a stroke than those individuals who ate the least.
Meanwhile, those who ate the highest levels of animal-based saturated fat were 16 percent more likely to suffer from stroke compared to those who consumed the least fat of that type.
According to a postdoctoral fellow in the department of nutrition, Fenglei Wang from Harvard's TH Chan of School Public Health, their findings specify that the fat type and different food sources of fat are more essential compared to the total amount of dietary fat in preventing cardiovascular disease which includes stroke. Wang is also the lead author of the study.
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Fat Types Needed in Diet
One needs fat to survive. It helps the body absorb vitamins from foods, keeps hormones from functioning, develops cells, provides energy, and keeps one warm.
Nonetheless, it is the unsaturated fats coming from vegetables, fatty fish, and nuts that can lower the levels of cholesterol and help keep a person healthy.
Director and senior scientist Alice Lichtenstein from the Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory at Tufts University in London, asked, "What are the major sources of vegetable and plant fats?"
She explained, those would be liquid oils like corn oil, sunflower oil, soybean oil, and safflower oil, which are rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids.
Then, there are also oils such as canola and olive oil which are rich in monounsaturated fatty oils, she continued. Lichtenstein is not part of the research. Those are the oil types that need to be used for food preparation.
Saturated and Trans Fats
Saturated and trans fats are not as healthy in general. Typically, saturated fats are coming from red and processed meats and tend to solidify at room temperature.
The researcher, which comprised pork, bacon, beef, lamb, bologna, hot dogs, sausage, salami, as well as other processed meats.
According to the chair of the nutrition department Dr. Frank Hu, from Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, in an earlier interview with CNN, a moderate decrease in the consumption of red and processed meat within a healthy eating pattern can lessen the total death rate by 13 percent, heart ailment mortality by 14 percent, cancer mortality by 11 percent, and risk of type 2 diabetes by 24 percent. He is one of the study's authors.
What's more interesting is that this research showed that dairy fat, which includes cheese, ice cream, butter, milk, and cream, was not linked to a higher risk of stroke.
There has been an ongoing argument among nutrition experts regarding the role of dairy in the diet as a main source of calcium.
The 2020 to 2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans of the United States Department of Agriculture call for three servings of dairy every day, preferably low- and zero-fat versions.
Information about Trans fats and the risk of stroke is shown on Mayo Clinic's YouTube video below:
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