Research & Technical Articles Diet and Heart Disease: Not What You Think < continued from previous page The accumulation of hardened plaque in the arteries, or atherosclerosis, is indeed a major cause of heart disease in Western nations. The accepted explanation for its prevalence in civilized countries is the lipid hypothesis, namely that dietary saturated fat and cholesterol lead to elevated levels of cholesterol in the blood, and that these elevated levels of cholesterol cause the pathogenic atheromas that block blood vessels. This theory has been promoted by the American Heart Association since the mid-1960s. It forms the basis of governmental nutritional recommendations, which in turn have spurred consumer acceptance of a vast array of low-fat, cholesterol free food products, most of which contain ingredients that are new to the American diet. Numerous studies, both national and international, have explored the lipid hypothesis — and consumed the lion's share of research dollars in this area — including three major projects funded by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The first and best known of these studies was the Framingham Heart Study, carried out in the town of Framingham, Massachusetts. Although Framingham is often associated with proof of the lipid hypothesis, the results of this 40-year study have been a disappointment to its promoters. Investigators claimed that there was a 240% increase in "risk" of coronary heart disease, or CHD, between cholesterol levels of 182 and 244. But the actual rate of increase was only .13%. Between cholesterol levels of 244 and 294, the rate of CHD actually declined. Thus Framingham investigators found virtually no difference in heart disease for serum cholesterol levels between 182 and 284 the vast majority of the U.S. population. Nor did they find that diets high in fat and cholesterol predisposed an individual to heart disease. As Dr. William Castelli, the current director of the Framingham project, admitted as recently as 1992: "In Framingham, Massachusetts, the more saturated fat one ate, the more cholesterol one ate, the more calories one ate, the lower people's serum cholesterol...we found that the people who ate the most cholesterol, ate the most saturated fat, ate the most calories weighed the least and were the most physically active." > Heart Disease continued Home | Product Line | Endorsements | FAQs | Research | Order Products VITAL PRODUX™ 44 Mine Rd. Suite 2, PMB 209 Stafford, Virginia  22554  USA 540-286-2400 – FAX: 540-752-4765 E-mail: info@VitalProdux.com Copyright © 1996-2003, VTI, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Text, graphics, and HTML code are protected by US and International Copyright Laws, and may not be copied, reprinted, published, translated, hosted, or otherwise distributed by any means without explicit permission. Vital Produx™ is a trademark of VTI, Inc. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.