In a finding expected to revise some diets of millions of people around the world, a recent Danish study found that eating oats for breakfast instead of eggs and white bread may reduce the risk of stroke.
The study team indicated in the journal (Stroke) that the research has long linked between eating breakfast daily, especially oats, and the reduced risk of stroke, but it has not yet provided a clear picture of the potential effect of eating oats instead of common breakfast items, such as eggs And bread and milk (yogurt), at risk of strokes.
The researchers studied dietary data, which was followed by an average of 55,000 adults in Denmark, aged 56 years on average, with no stroke history.
Initially participants consumed an average of 2.1 servings of eggs, three servings of white bread, one serving of yogurt and 0.1 servings of oats per week.
The researchers followed half of the participants for at least 13.4 years, and during the follow-up, 2,260 of them suffered a stroke.
Using a statistical model, the researchers found that those who replaced oats with one serving of eggs or white bread had a 4% lower risk of stroke, compared to those who kept eating eggs or bread at breakfast. Eating oats instead of yogurt did not seem to have any effect.
In the same context, said lead researcher Christina Dam from Aarhus University in Denmark, "Our results indicate that turning more people into oats instead of white or egg bread may be a wise choice to prevent strokes."
She added - in this context - that the study was not intended to demonstrate whether oats reduce the risk of stroke or how it does so, but perhaps the reason is that oats help lower cholesterol level. Most strokes occur when a clot blocks an artery that transports blood to the brain.