U.S. study ties fast food to stroke risk

[depakid]

Source: Reuters

People who live in neighborhoods packed with fast-food restaurants are more likely to suffer strokes, U.S. researchers said on Thursday. They said residents of one Texas county who lived in neighborhoods with the highest number of fast-food restaurants had a 13 percent higher risk of experiencing a stroke than those in neighborhoods with the fewest such restaurants.

The study, presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference, does not prove living near fast-food restaurants raises the risk of stroke, but it does suggest the two are linked in some way. "The data show a true association," Dr. Lewis Morgenstern of the University of Michigan's stroke program, who led the study, said in a statement.

But he said it is not clear whether being surrounded by fast-food means you eat more of it, or that it is simply a sign of an unhealthy neighborhood.

"We need to start unraveling why these particular communities have higher stroke risks," Morgenstern said. "Is it direct consumption of fast food? Is it the lack of more healthy options? Is there something completely different in these neighborhoods that is associated with poor health?" he asked.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssConsumerGoodsAndRetailNews/idUSN1953186220090219

[Turbineguy]

1. Nice timing, Jenny Craig,

I was just going out for an Egg McMuffin. Now I suppose I'll have to thank you for saving my life.

[clixtox]

2. A deadly stew of grease and chemical fumes...

permeating/polluting a neighborhood is bound to have deleterious effects eventually.

Eating corporate generated "food" certainly kills.

[SpiralHawk]

6. I call it not 'food' but "mutant, chemicalized nutritional-facsimile product"

[izquierdista]

3. Linked in some way

As in....you'd have to have stroke damage to your taste buds to want to eat in one of those places.

[rcrush]

4. Fast food is bad for you?

The hell you say!

[madrchsod]

5. this is bad for ya?

or this?





who would have thunk that?

[Joe Bacon]

7. Well, they haven't started franchising this...

The "Luther Burger", a bacon cheeseburger on a grilled Krispy Kreme donut:

[NM Independent]

11. Well, that's a couple thousand calories of YUCK!

Seriously, that is nasty, nasty, nasty.

[HopeHoops]

8. Who could have imagined that greasy, fatty, high sodium garbage could be unhealthy?

[KurtNYC]

9. what BS "study" -- how ironic that this is the "fast food" version of science

This is among the weakest crap ever to be called science:

"residents of one Texas county who lived in neighborhoods with the highest number of fast-food restaurants had a 13 percent higher risk of experiencing a stroke"

Even the writer knows this proves NOTHING:
The study...does not prove living near fast-food restaurants raises the risk of stroke

This is the kind of group-think that got many people to eat margarine and to eat "low fat" both of which were wrong. To be clear, fast food has already been proven to have negative health consequences but this kind of study undermines the credibility of nutritional science in general. There are far far better studies than this nonsense. EG. The Harvard Nurse Study follows tens of thousands of people over decades.

[depakid]

12. It's an environmental survey- worth what most environmental surveys are worth

It identifies a "clustering" of illnesses- and identifies an environmental condition associated with it. That it's not infering causation is OBVIOUS. There could be any of a number of factors at play.

The point is that there's a substantial health inequality between what appear to be otherwise similar communities.

These are often jumping off points for much more in depth research that leads to astonishing new insights and paradigms.

See e.g., the Roseto effect:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-rock-positano/the-mystery-of-the-roseta_b_73260.html

[riverdeep]

13. I didn't think the selected quotes indicate anything but a "this might be interesting"

quality to it. They say right upfront it doesn't prove anything. Although I'll admit it does have an unfinished feel to it. I'm sure these neighborhoods also have more pawnshops nearby, too. That would indicate pawnshops cause strokes.

Being poor is bad for your health is what it really is, due to a confluence of factors including poor eating choices and availability.

[depakid]

16. Could also have something to do with social capital

The people of Roseta were poor- yet had astonishingly different health outcomes than more affluent neighbors- and as they became more afffluent, the protective effects were attenuated.

[Mari333]

10. oooo food porn

baconeggcheeseburgerpizza

[riverdeep]

14. Considering they put a sticker on cigarettes that says

outright "This will cause cancer" and people still do it, I don't think this is going to stop anybody. They could probably put a warning label on fast food that "This will make your spleen rupture painfully" and people would still eat it. The McDonald's by me is always backed up with a line of cars, day or night.

edit: grammer

[depakid]

17. Actually, labelling like Canada's and Australia's has significantly decreased smoking

Of course, the fear appeals are a little bit different:


---------



Graphic Canadian Cigarette Warning Labels and Adverse Outcomes: Evidence from Canadian Smokers

Objectives. We assessed the impact of graphic Canadian cigarette warning labels.

Methods. We used a longitudinal telephone survey of 616 adult smokers.

Results. Approximately one fifth of participants reported smoking less as a result of the labels; only 1% reported smoking more. Although participants reported negative emotional responses to the warnings including fear (44%) and disgust (58%), smokers who reported greater negative emotion were more likely to have quit, attempted to quit, or reduced their smoking 3 months later. Participants who attempted to avoid the warnings (30%) were no less likely to think about the warnings or engage in cessation behavior at follow-up.

Conclusions. Policymakers should not be reluctant to introduce vivid or graphic warnings for fear of adverse outcomes.

Much more: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1448469

[Scout]

15. nothing to do with cholesterol levels, which are hereditary, nah, couldn't be that

my dad almost never in his life has eaten fast food ... at first for years he was lucky to eat at all ... then he was too poor to eat outside the home unless from his metal lunch bucket ... then when he had some money he didn't want to spend it on fast food. had a mini-stroke a few years ago--he's just turned 83.

:shrug: