A occurs when the blood supply to a person’s brain is blocked, which in turn stops oxygen from reaching brain tissue. The sooner a person receives treatment for a stroke, the less damage is likely to happen. The sooner a person cuts out certain foods from their diet, the less risk they will have too. What to avoid?

One study used data from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC).

The study involved more than 418,329 people from nine European countries including Denmark, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the U.K.

As part of EPIC, the participants answered questions about their habitual diet, lifestyle factors, medical history, and sociodemographic characteristics.

The researchers clinically followed the participants for an average period of 12.7 years.

The researchers used statistical tools to estimate hazard ratios over the follow-up period for “ischemic and haemorrhagic stroke associated with consumption of red and processed meat, poultry, fish, dairy foods, eggs, cereals, fruit and vegetables, legumes, nuts and seeds, and dietary fibre”.

Overall, the research found that a higher intake of either fruit, vegetables, fibre, milk, cheese, or yogurt was associated with a lower risk of ischemic stroke but not with that of haemorrhagic stroke.

Specifically, for every additional 200 grams (g) of fruit and vegetables that a person consumed each day, the relative risk of ischemic stroke was 13 percent lower, and for each 10 g/day of total dietary fibre, the relative risk was 23 percent lower.

This, explain the authors, is the equivalent of 1.02 fewer cases of ischemic stroke for fruit and vegetables and 1.86 fewer cases for total dietary fibre per 1,000 participants in a 10-year period.

According to the NHS, other risk factors for ischaemic stroke:

  • Smoking
  •  
  • High blood pressure
  •  
  • Obesity
  •  
  • High cholesterol levels
  •  
  • Diabetes
  •  
  • Excessive alcohol intake.

Source: | This article originally belongs to Express.co.uk