"How to Prevent a Stroke"
High dietary fiber intake may prevent strokes.
The belief that dietary fiber intake is protectively associated to some diseases
was postulated 40 years ago and then enormously fueled
and kept alive by a great body of science since.
Today, it is therefore generally believed
that eating lots of fiber helps prevent obesity, diabetes,
and cardiovascular diseases such as stroke.
Strokes are the second most common cause of death worldwide.
Moreover, stroke is a leading cause of disability
and so preventing strokes in the first place – what’s called primary prevention–
should therefore, be a key public health priority.
Based on all the best studies to date fiber appears
to significantly protect against the risk of stroke.
Different strokes for different folks,
perhaps depending, on how much fiber they ate.
Notably, increasing fiber just 7 grams a day
was associated with a significant 7% reduction in stroke risk.
And 7 grams is easy, like a small serving of whole grain pasta
with tomato sauce and an apple.
What’s the mechanism?
Well, fiber helps lower cholesterol and blood sugar levels.
Or could just be that we'd be eating more vegetables,
or less calories, or less meat and fat,
or improving digestion, slimming us down, lowering our blood pressure
and the amount of inflammation within our bodies.
Does it really matter though?
As Dr. Burkitt commented on the biblical passage that reads,
“A man scatters seed on the land—the seed sprouts and opens—how, he does not know”.
But he doesn’t wait to find out.
Had the farmer postponed his sowing until he understood seed germination,
he would not have lasted very long.
So yes, let’s keep trying to figure out WHY fiber is protective,
but in the meanwhile we should be increasing our intake of fiber,
which is to say whole plant foods.
And it’s never too early.
Strokes are one of many complications of arterial stiffness.
Though our first stroke may not happen until our 50s,
our arteries may have been already stiffening
for decades leading up to it.
Hundreds of kids were followed for 24 years,
from age 13 in junior high through age 36,
and they found that lower intake of fiber during young age
is associated with stiffening of the arteries leading up to the brain,
and so we need to promote consumption of fiber-rich foods among the youth.
In fact, even by age 13 they could see a difference
in arterial stiffness depending on diet.
This emphasizes the view that increases in fiber intake
should be pursued already that young among young children.
And again, it doesn’t take much.
One extra apple a day or an extra quarter cup of broccoli
might translate to meaningful differences
in arterial stiffness in adulthood.
But if you REALLY don’t want a stroke,
we should try to get 25 grams a day of soluble fiber,
which is found in beans, oats, nuts, and berries,
and 47 grams a day of insoluble fiber,
found primarily in whole grains.
One would have to eat an extraordinarily healthy diet
to get that much, yet these cut-off values could be considered
as the MINIMUM recommended daily intake
of soluble and insoluble fiber, to prevent stroke.
They admit these are higher than those commonly and
arbitrarily proposed as “adequate” levels by scientific societies,
but do we want to be patronized to as to what authorities think is practical,
or do we just want them to tell us what the science says,
like the researchers did here?
Someone funded by Kellogg’s wrote in to complain
that in practice such fiber intakes are unachievable.
Rather the message should just be, mmm… the more, the better,
ya know, just have a bowl of cereal or something (wink,wink).
The real Dr. Kellogg, who was actually one of our most famous physicians,
credited for being one of the first to sound the alarm about smoking,
may have been the first American physician to have recognized
the field of nutrition as a science,
would today be rolling in his grave if he knew
what his company had become.