Dietary Intake of Different Carbohydrates Among Incident Stroke Patients During Previous Year

Abstract

Background: Stroke is a leading cause of preventable morbidity and mortality in the United States. Numerous studies have shown that dietary carbohydrates play an important role in stroke incident. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the association between dietary intake of carbohydrate and its types and stroke incidence among Iranian adults.

Methods: A case‑control study was performed among 46 men (5618) and 23 women (527) admitted to the Al Zahra hospital with stroke and 60 healthy people were chosen in control group. Dietary intake was measured by food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) including 168 items. Food processor software (version 2) was used to analyze data.

Results: Anthropometric indices of male and female patients were (BMI: 297.5), (Waist: 11215) and (BMI: 25.53.5), (Waist: 925) respectively. Energy intake and carbohydrate consumption of patients in both genders was higher than the healthy subjects which was statistically significant among men (P < 0.05). Across different carbohydrate sources, refined carbohydrates consumption was higher among patients in both gender rather than the healthy subjects While, the healthy people had a higher whole grain consumption.

Conclusions: High carbohydrate intake specially refined sources with high glycemic index (GI) and glycemic load (GL) is associated with increased risk of stroke. Hence, dietary intake requires improvement to provide protection from life threatening outcomes.

Keywords: Carbohydrate, glycemic index, stroke