The fat- and sugar-rich Western diet leads to a lifetime of health problems, dramatically increasing the risk of stroke or death at a younger age, according to a study presented today at the Canadian Stroke Congress.
Researchers found that a high-calorie, high-sugar, high-sodium diet nicknamed the ‘cafeteria diet’ induced most symptoms of metabolic syndrome – a combination of high levels of cholesterol, blood sugar, blood pressure and obesity – in rats after only two months.
The animals were at an age roughly equivalent to 16 to 22 years in humans at the time of disease onset, according to lead researcher Dr. Dale Corbett, scientific director of the Heart and Stroke Foundation Centre for Stroke Recovery.