Fish-Eaters Suffer Fewer Strokes

A new study suggests that Swedish fish lovers are less likely to suffer strokes. Investigators followed more than 34,000 women over 10 years. When the study started in 1997, none of the Swedish women had cancer or cardiovascular disease. During the decade that followed, 1,680 of the women suffered a stroke. The women who reported eating fish at least three times a week were 16 percent less likely to be among those who had strokes than those who ate fish less than weekly. In this study, lean fish offered more benefit than fatty fish, perhaps because fatty fish such as salmon and herring are usually eaten salted in Sweden. Salt tends to raise blood pressure, which could counteract the benefit.

[American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Jan. 2011]