There’s more concern over the fast-food industry. This time researchers are finding that the more fast-food establishments there are in the proximity of your home, the higher the risk of stroke
Researcher Dr. Lewis B. Morgenstern at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor counted 1,247 strokes caused by blood clots in 64 census tracts in Nueces County, Texas, from January 2000 through June 2003.
“The association suggested that the risk of stroke in a neighborhood increased by one percent for every fast-food restaurant,” the authors wrote in a poster presented at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference.
The phrasing of the findings is kind of peculiar. It’s worded as if simply by living amongst the restaurants, the food makes it into your system via osmosis. It’s attack of the killer fast-food! All kidding aside, the researchers are unsure if strokes are simply caused by people living nearby.
“What we don’t know is whether fast-food actually increased the risk because of its contents or whether fast-food restaurants are a marker of unhealthy neighborhoods,” says Morgenstern.
Is it me, or does this study seem like a waste of time? Since I’m not one of the researchers, and I don’t have the same accountability, I’ll go out on a limb and say that the fast-food is actually increasing the stroke risk. They wouldn’t be open if people weren’t coming. And if people are coming, they are getting the unhealthy side effects.
(via: CNN)