October 3, 2003

BY JIM RITTER Health Reporter

Contrary to what you might think, the amount of fat you eat doesn't have any impact on your risk of stroke, according to a provocative new study of nearly 44,000 men.

But that doesn't mean you should load up on french fries, researchers say. One study is not enough to rule out any stroke risk from fat. Moreover, fat still remains a significant risk factor for heart disease.

"We still need further study to make conclusions," said study director Ka He of Northwestern University medical school. He was at Harvard School of Public Health when he conducted the study, published in today's British Medical Journal.

For 14 years, He and his Harvard colleagues followed healthy men aged 40 to 75 who filled out detailed questionnaires about their eating habits.

There were 725 strokes by the end of the study. Researchers found no relation between stroke risk and consumption of total fat, animal fat, vegetable fat, saturated fat, mono-unsaturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, trans fat or cholesterol.

"Consumption of red meats, high-fat dairy products, nuts or eggs did not seem to be related to risk of stroke," researchers wrote.

The findings are somewhat puzzling because studies have found that too much saturated fat increases the risk of hardening of the carotid artery, a potential risk factor for strokes. Conversely, polyunsaturated fat reduces the risk of hardening of the artery. But earlier studies reached conflicting conclusions about the link between various types of fat and stroke risk.

The new finding is not definitive either, said Dr. Jeffrey Frank, a University of Chicago neurologist who was not involved in the study. Filling out food questionnaires might not provide completely accurate counts of fat consumption, Frank said.

But even if further research confirms the new finding, there still remains a significant link between fat and heart disease, Frank said. "I don't think this should change how anyone eats at all."

The American Heart Association recommends limiting saturated fat to between 7 percent and 10 percent of total calories and total fat to no more than 30 percent of total calories. Keep cholesterol under 300 milligrams per day.