Article Abstract:
Young children who take in large amounts of calcium in their diet may have lower systolic blood pressure than those who do not. Blood pressure measurements have two components: systolic blood pressure (the top number) and diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number). The diets of 89 children between three and six years old were followed for an average of 9.6 days. Analysis of dietary calcium and systolic blood pressure found that for each unit of dietary calcium consumed per day, systolic blood pressure decreased a unit. The average systolic blood pressure of children with the highest dietary intake of calcium was six points higher than that of children who had the lowest dietary intake of calcium. No association was found between dietary calcium levels and diastolic blood pressure. Children who consumed large amounts of dietary calcium also ate large amounts of fat, however, since dairy products were the main source of dietary calcium. Parents of children over age two or three should feed them low-fat dairy products to reduce their risk of atherosclerosis later in life.
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Article Abstract:
Eating fruits and vegetables may decrease the risk of stroke in men. A group of 832 men filled out dietary surveys between 1966 and 1969 to determine their daily intake of fruits and vegetables. The men were divided into five groups based on the number of daily servings of fruits and vegetables they reported eating. Over the 20 years following the original survey, 97 men had strokes. The incidence of stroke was 191.7 per 1,000 in the men who ate two or fewer servings of fruits and vegetables a day, compared to 78.7 per 1,000 in those who ate eight or more servings daily. The more servings of fruits and vegetables they ate, the lower their risk of stroke.
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Article Abstract:
There may be a link between low dietary levels of fat and the risk of stroke. In a study of 832 men participating in the Framingham Heart Study, the risk of stroke from a blood clot in the brain decreased as the amount of dietary fat increased. This was true for total fat, saturated fat and monounsaturated fat but not for polyunsaturated fat. This confirms other reports which have shown that atherosclerosis affects the large coronary arteries differently than the small blood vessels in the brain.
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