Frequently consuming red meat appears to increase the risk of stroke significantly, while choosing to eat poultry and other proteins, such as fish or nuts, lowers the risk, according to a new study by researchers at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the Cleveland Clinic.
“The main message from this paper is that the type of protein or the protein package is really important for the risk of stroke,” co-author Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at HSPH, told Reuters.
The study was published in Stroke online December 29, 2011. Other HSPH researchers included An Pan, Meir Stampfer, Dariush Mozaffarian, and Walter Willett.
Men who ate more than two red meat servings daily had a 28% higher stroke risk than those who ate about one-third of a serving each day. People who ate the most chicken or turkey each day had a 13% reduced stroke risk than those who ate about one daily serving of red meat. The investigators also found that substituting other proteins, such as nuts or fish, for one daily serving of red meat reduced stroke risk.
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