ROC4LIFE

Researchers recently discovered a link to stroke victims living in Southern states and their choice of fried fish and the information is quite interesting.
According to a study published in Neurology, people living in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana — also known as the “stoke belt”— consume more fried fish and less non-fried fish than people living in the rest of the country. The danger influx depended on cooking methods of the fish as well as consumption rates. African Americans were at a higher risk than Caucasians.

Researchers concluded the findings by conducting interviews over the phones and then in-home physical exams. The questionnaire quizzed participants how often they ate oysters, shellfish, tuna, fried fish, and non-fried fish. The results were alarming.

USA Today reports: “Of the participants, 21% were from the “stroke buckle,” the coastal plain region of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia where stroke mortality rates are even higher than they are in the rest of the stroke belt. Another 34% were from the rest of the stroke belt and 44% were from the other states.
Fewer than one in four overall ate two or more servings of non-fried fish a week. Stroke belt residents were 32% more likely to eat two or more servings of fried fish each week than those in the rest of the country.

African-Americans were more than 3.5 times more likely to eat two or more servings of fried fish each week than Caucasians, with an overall average of about one serving per week of fried fish compared with about half a serving for Caucasians.

When it came to eating non-fried fish meals, stroke belt residents ate an average of 1.45 servings per week, compared with 1.63 servings eaten by people elsewhere.

A total of 21,675 participants averaging 65-years-old from across the country participated in the the study. The research is part of a large government-funded project for Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS).
Of All Things, Why Fried Fish? The American Heart Association recommends people eat fish high in omega-3 fatty acids—essential fatty acids humans get through their diet—at least twice a week, baked or grilled but not fried. So, it could be that frying the fish leaches out the omega-3s, says Jeremy Lanford, stroke director at Scott & White Healthcare in Roundrock, Texas.

Or the increased fat calorie content from the frying oil may contribute to stroke, says author Nahab. He also notes that fish used for frying, such as cod and haddock, tend to be the types lower in healthy fats.

More research is needed to tease out whether cooking methods affect stroke risk, Labovitz says.

“In other words, is fried fish a problem, or is it another red herring?” he says.

“This is good stuff. It’s a well-done study, but I think one thing to bear in mind is that it’s not specifically a study of stroke risk. You’re looking at a community and seeing how it’s behaving on the whole,” says Daniel Labovitz, a stroke neurologist at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.
-Monique “Marvelous Mo” Balcarran