Welcome to the Nutrition Facts Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Michael Greger.

The coronavirus pandemic has made many of us very aware of the importance of maintaining and improving our health.

Make that your silver lining.

Because the more positive change we can make to our diet lifestyle, the better.

Today on the podcast, part two of our Strokes and Diet series,

in our first story, we start out with a study on vegetarians and stroke risk.

The risks of heart disease and stroke in meat eaters versus vegetarians over 18 years of follow-up.

Not surprisingly, vegetarian diets were associated with less heart disease,

10 fewer cases per 1,000 people per decade compared to meat eaters.

But vegetarian diets were associated with three more cases of stroke.

So, I mean, eating vegetarian appears to lower the risk of cardiovascular disease by seven overall.

But why the extra stroke risk?

I mean, could it just be reverse causation?

For example, when studies have shown higher mortality among those who quit smoking,

compared to continuing smokers, we suspect reverse causality.

When we see a link between quitting smoking and dying,

instead of quitting smoking, leading to people dying more likely,

dying led people to quit smoking.

It's the same reason why non-drinkers can appear to have even more liver cirrhosis

because it was their failing liver that led them to stop drinking.

This is the so-called sick quitter effect.

And you can see it when people quit meat too.

...