Does Red Meat Consumption Raise Stroke Risk?

Findings about red meat consumption and stroke risk are sparse and inconsistent. Investigators assessed self-reported red meat consumption in 34,670 participants in the Swedish Mammography Cohort in relation to incidence of stroke (cerebral infarction, intracerebral or subarachnoid hemorrhage, or unspecified stroke) as reported in the Swedish Hospital Discharge Registry during a mean follow-up of 10.4 years.

After multivariate adjustment, women in the highest decile of red meat consumption (>102 g or >3.6 ounces daily) were at 42% higher risk for cerebral infarction than were women in the lowest decile (<25 g or <0.9 ounces daily). Subgroup analysis showed that never-smokers without diabetes in the highest decile of red meat consumption were…