Diet and Stroke

Diet and Stroke

General Comments

There are two main types of stroke, Ischemic and Haemorrhagic.

Ischemic

More common, accounting for about 80% of strokes, and caused by a blockage in an artery, possibly in the brain or supplying part of the brain.

Haemorrhagic

Caused by rupture of an artery or vein, leading to high pressure in a small area, loss of local oxygen supply, and sometimes pain.

I am assuming the former, more common type, particularly as I understand that no head pain is involved.

Causes

Some things are strongly linked to strokes, for others the connection is tenuous, not proven, or recently disproved. There are, of course, several sides to the arguments!

In the last few weeks I have trawled the Internet for more information, including clinical trials on supplements, and data on various foods, and what follows are my own views on what I have found.

Saturated fats are strongly linked to CHD (coronary heart disease), less saturated fats are better, and of all the fats, fish oil is best. Over a period of time, these less saturated fats replace the saturated fats, making the blood less viscous, better flowing, and the platelets less sticky.

The connection between cholesterol and CHD, believed for years to be strong, has been shown to weak, and possibly non-existent. This has come from better trials and re-examination of previous trials.

An alkaline diet allows the body to function much better, and helps to clear arteries.

Eating more vegetables helps (alkaline), and best of all is fruit, preferably fresh, and eaten whole, with skins. Canned fruit is also good, provided it is in fruit juice, not sugary syrup.

Sugar is bad, as it can be changed to fat, and it overloads the pancreas.

Minerals are very important, and if a supplement is not taken, then eat a varied diet to get as many minerals as possible. The state of the soil governs the amount and type of minerals in food, and just because the food is claimed to be organic does not mean the mineral content is better.

Vitamins are of course required and a supplement is better, but a good varied diet should supply enough if well sourced and not over-cooked.

A vegetarian diet has both advantages and disadvantages, but the lack of meat lets them avoid many problems. On balance, they are not significantly better off than others, provided balanced diets are consumed. There is much conflicting advice on this point!

Meat fat can be reduced to very low levels by careful choice of cuts and types.

Weight for weight, meat and good vegetables have about the same mineral and vitamin content.

Whole milk has 3.4% fat, semi-skimmed has 2% fat, so you choose yourself.

Reducing salt has almost no effect unless high levels were being consumed.

Apple and grape juice are low in Vit. C, so obtain it from other fruits and vegetables, but these two juices are excellent because of the chemicals they contain.

Dietary Advice

Reduce consumption of meats such as beef, pork, and lamb.

Cut down on all animal fats and reduce consumption of saturated fats.

Use turkey, game, chicken, and fish, as protein sources.

Eat oily fish daily, even if it is only a small portion. Use mackerel, sardines, salmon, pilchards, herring.

Reduce protein to low levels, about 20 to 30 gms. per day. It is acidic and mucous-forming.

Throw out all margarines and hydrogenated oils. Use butter (sparingly!).

Go easy on bread, it makes sugar (and hence fat) levels surge.

No refined sugars at all.

Read labels on food containers very carefully.

Use lots of vegetables, and eat some raw.

If you eat nuts use only Walnut, Almond, Brazil. (Walnut for oils, Brazil for selenium)

Use olive oil (Virgin, cold pressed) or Grapeseed oil for cooking.

Use Sunflower oil if desired for drizzling over food, as it reduces triglycerides in the blood.

Eat lots and lots of fruit, and eat the skins as the good chemicals are there.

Use fruit juices with bits, but raw fruit is better. Juice drinks are no use.

Avoid grapefruit.

Avoid grains as much as possible, and never eat breakfast cereals, as they are full of sugar and bad for arteries, even without sugar.

Use sprouted seeds if desired. Mung beans work well.

Detox slowly on high fruit diets for a few weeks to see the results. Everyone is different, so results will vary from person to person.

Switch the diet to alkaline using a lot less protein (very acidic), less carbohydrate (mildly acidic), more vegetables (alkaline), and lots of fruit (very alkaline).

Eat fruit with a high ratio of skin to volume, eg grapes, berries, etc..

Use herbs, fresh if possible, for their high mineral content.

Diet Simple

	Greatly reduce saturated fats. They are found in animal fats. Wild animals are low fat 2-4%, beef, pork 20-25%, lamb 25-30%, chicken (no skin) 7% or less, turkey 4%. White fish has virtually no fat, and oily fish has good fat with omega 3 and 6 oils.
	Cut out all refined sugars and foods that contain them, such as cakes, biscuits, sweets. They cause sugar levels in the blood to rise rapidly, then fall, causing hunger, and forcing the body to convert the sugar to fat and store it in special fat cells.
	Avoid cereals as they have high sugar levels, and grains can damage arteries.
	Use no hydrogenated fats. They are trans-fats and are dangerous, reducing the conversion rate of omega 3 oils by 20 to 40 %. Eat no margarine at all! Use butter-sparingly!
	Use semi-skimmed milk and diabetic, sugar-free jams.
	Cut back on bread, as it is a fast-release carbohydrate. Use sparingly, and mix with oatcakes, etc..
	Cut out starches such as rice and potatoes, as they act like sugar.
	Eat lots more vegetables as they are slightly alkaline, and supply fibre.
	Nuts are high in fats, eat carefully, and favour walnuts, almonds and brazil nuts.
	Make soups using oat bran and yeast as a base. Gives fibre and B vitamins.
	Eat small meals, and eat when hungry. No sweet or fatty snacks between meals, use fruit if hungry.
	Eat some food raw before every meal as it helps digestion and controls the immune system.
	Eat lots of fresh fruit with the skins as the good chemicals are in the outer portions.
	Make the overall diet more alkaline by eating more vegetables and fruit and less protein.
	Take regular fibre to keep the digestive system operating.

Diet Alkaline

Same as simple but cut protein to 20-30 gms. per day, as is very acidic and mucous forming.

A by-product of protein is ammonia, and the body has to work hard to get rid of it.

Carbohydrates are mildly acidic, fats are neutral as they are burnt to water and carbon dioxide.

Vegetables are mildly alkaline, and fruits are very alkaline. Tomato is a fruit. Canned fruit is fine if in fruit juice, but not good if in syrup or sugary juice.

Diet Fruit

Extreme, but healthiest of all. Surprisingly, it is adequate in minerals, vitamins, and protein. Must be fresh, and grown on good soil, plus the rest of the body has to work in order to make all the required chemicals from the building blocks in fruit. Not recommended, but can use for a few days at a time to detoxify.

Wine

Use Pinot Noir as has seven times the level of some chemicals that are good for arteries and the heart. As a general rule, use wine from thick-skinned grapes in a hot, arid climate.

Oils and fats

Saturated means no double bonds between carbon atoms. This is the dangerous type.

Mono-saturated, with one double bond in the chain of about 18 carbons, is better. An example is olive oil.

Poly-unsaturated means several double bonds. Margarine and some plant oils are like this, but margarine is made from liquid oil by a process of adding hydrogen to make it solid at room temperature. This changes the shape to a trans-fat, which is dangerous. With this shape, it interferes with other processes, such as usage of omega 3 oils.

Platelets in the blood are less sticky when omega 3 and 6 oils feature highly in the diet.

There are lots of different opinions on fats, with suggested percentages in the diet of from 10 to 30-35% by calories. They are needed in the body but can be made internally if other chemicals are present, hence an all-fruit diet is actually OK for fats, weird though it may seem. Personally, after quite a bit of reading, I would favour a low figure of about 10-15%.

Canola oil is Canadian oil, and is a special variety of rapeseed, higher in omega 3 and 6 oils. The rapeseed oil as sold in shops here is extremely low on omega 3, about 0.3%.

Cereals and Grains

Often mentioned as a healthy option, grains have some nasty chemicals in them. Not a feature of hunter-gatherer diets, they were of little use till fire was used. The heat was needed to deactivate the enzyme inhibitors, but also destroyed some good chemicals. Groups living on grains tended to be smaller with less stamina than meat-eaters or fruit eaters. Austrian autopsies ( 20,000 or more) over years have shown that grains damage arteries, making them harder and less flexible. Use sparingly, and watch out for added sugars. The bran from oats is very good, but wheat bran can score the linings of the intestines.

Sugars

In the raw state, they have over 200 other chemicals, some used by the body as recognition signals. Once refined, these chemicals are lost, and the result is a fast rise in blood sugar, the pancreas having to work frantically (twice the size in the West compared to those who eat fruits) to reduce sugar levels. Some has to be stored as fats in special fat cells, and the blood sugar levels then plunge to under normal, leading to hunger. Watch foods for the hidden refined sugars.