Eats

Out of the frying pan

by Mary Tutwiler

Ok, so all the latest health recommendations say to eat more fish. Low fat, high in omega-3 fatty acids, guaranteed to lower your risk of getting a stroke. Right? Wrong. While here in the deep South we eat more fish than anybody else in the country, we fry it. Which makes us more likely to catch a stroke.

That's the latest study from Dr. Fadi Nahab at Emory University, who led a team that studied the role of race and geography in stroke incidence, with a particular emphasis on the "Stroke Belt'' in the southeastern United States, where stroke death rates are higher than in the rest of the country.

The Stroke Belt is Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

To read the entire study, go to the online journal, Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.