1) A study presented at the American Stroke Association conference found that people who ate a "Southern" diet of salty greens, fried meats, and sugar-sweetened beverages 6 times a week had a 41% higher risk of stroke compared to those who ate it less than once a month. 2) The study classified diets into 5 groups and found that the "Healthy" diet of fruits, vegetables, and grains had the lowest 29% stroke risk. 3) The article argues that the Southern diet acts like an "assault rifle", relentlessly targeting health by increasing risks of stroke, heart disease, diabetes, cancers and other chronic conditions.

1. Nouvelle Sante
Health and Medicine Summaries
If Guns Don’t Kill People… There is Always
Food.
The debate about gun control has brought out some real gems.
‘Guns don’t kill people’; presumably people kill people. Absurdly
profound, or profoundly absurd, it is countered, or tempered by an
argument from the other side that guns that shoot multiple rounds rapidly
should be banned, but other guns are okay. The non-automatics perhaps
introduce an element of reflection in between shots, a sort of a shootthink-shoot-think paradigm. In our post- primitive thinking, violence can
always be justified, as long as we perceive ourselves to be on the right
side. But, for those of us who find the possession, or use of guns
unacceptable in civilized society, other than for law enforcement
agencies, we have other means of inflicting some serious damage.
One such tool is food. Well actually, a way of life that involves
less physical activity and a cuisine that adds significant pain. Not
exactly that blunt, nor unexpected, was the suggestion from the study
presented at the American Stroke Association 2013 International
Stroke Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii.
What better venue than the Aloha State, incidentally known as
the State with the happiest people, if one were to believe Gallup; not
that sun, sand, surf, and clean air might have something to do with it,
to reveal findings about dietary practices of the nation’s least
happiest people.

2. Nouvelle Sante
Health and Medicine Summaries
Taking over 20,000 respondent’s answers, half of which came
from the southeastern region, study leader, Suzanne Judd, Ph.D.,
assistant professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB)
Department of Bio statistics, classified the diets into 5 groups.
Southern: Salty greens, fried and processed meats
and sugar-sweetened beverages. People who ate
this type of food about 6 times a week were found

3. Nouvelle Sante
Health and Medicine Summaries
to be at a 41% higher stroke risk compared to those
who ate it less than once a month. Black people are
at a higher risk, 63%, compared to that of whites.
Traditional or Convenience: Common Chinese or
Mexican dishes, pasta, pizza, soup, and other mixed
dishes.
Sweets: Excessive sweet snacks and desserts.
Alcohol: Proteins, alcohol, and salad.
Healthy: Primarily fruits, vegetables, and grains.
This diet, understandably, had the lowest stroke
risk than other diets, 29% lower.
The findings from this study may just be the tip of the cheese
melt on top of the fries. For a strict practitioner of the southern diet,
almost invariably, obesity and overweight problems will set in before
getting to the stroke. Once you get to the lofty state called Obesity,
you have arrived. From that point onward it is all downhill, so to
speak.
Indeed, if food were a weapon, the southern diet would be
the assault rifle. Without waiting to reload, it relentlessly
targets almost all body functions; Stroke and heart disease risk are
joined by arthritis, diabetes, renal and
other cancers, liver diseases, hypertension, pancreatitis, sleep apnea,
the list goes on. Some of its known victims are illustrated in the
‘ Cornucopia of Obesity’ chart. Regardless of diet, the disease

4. Nouvelle Sante
Health and Medicine Summaries
incidence maps below show the southern region is at great risk for
many chronic conditions.
Borrowing the gun rights advocates’ logic, food does not kill people,
people abuse and kill food, and then use it to kill them selves. At least, in
this, the gun rights people are correct. Let’s face it; you
can weaponize any food by deep frying it, especially if it is done in engine
oil, commonly known to us as vegetable oil. Popular frying oils are rich
in linoleic acid, which metabolizes to omega-6 fatty acids, an abundance
of which can create a host of problems for a human being. The longer a
batch of frying oil is re-used, the higher its trans fat content becomes.
Here is something interesting; we all know fish is supposed to be good for
us, what with all the omega-3 fatty acids, DHA and EPA, in dark, oily fish,
right? Deep fry it in vegetable diesel and what have we here? A trans
fat torpedo! Talk about a weapons grade fat!
The other popular diets, the shoot-think-shoot-paradigm-hand-gun
foods such as the so called convenience, as well as the
excessively sweet diet are probably just as toxic , aided by enriched white
flours and corn syrup sugars, but they allow you a moment of reflection in
between shots, before arriving at the cornucopia. If the objective is to get
fat, the end result, medically, is probably bound to be the same.
Looking at the disease prevalence charts above, one can quickly
surmise the southern-southeastern region is not doing well. It is something
that needs to be addressed by educators, and parents with a seriously
heightened level of urgency.
Sources:
American Stroke Association Meeting Report - Abstract 144 - Embargoed until 7 a.m. HT/ Noon ET on
Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013

5. Nouvelle Sante
Health and Medicine Summaries
Frying in Oil
Chapter 9- ‘From Hunter-Gatherer to Waddler-Hoarder’.
Chart Sources
http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/DCPC_INCA/DCPC_INCA.aspx
2007 Estimates of the Percentage of Adults with Diagnosed Diabetes Division of Diabetes Translation,
Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Feb 8, 2013
Prevalence of obesity among adults — Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, United States, 2009
Stroke Death Rates, 2000-2006, Adults Ages 35+, by County Schieb, Linda, CDC, Feb 8, 2013
Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and
Health Promotion
Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention: Data Trends & Maps Web site. U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Center for
Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Atlanta, GA, 2010.
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