Research & Technical Articles Diet and Heart Disease: Not What You Think < continued from previous page So if it ain't saturated fat and cholesterol, what causes heart disease? There are a number of theories, most of which dovetail into a compelling list of dietary and life style factors that are unique to civilized societies. The second government-funded study was the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial (MRFIT) for 362,000 men. Researchers found that annual heart disease deaths increased from about 1 per 1,000 for cholesterol levels of 180 to slightly less than 2 per 1,000 for cholesterol levels of 300 — a 100% increase in "risk" but a trivial increase in rate of less that .1%. A more significant finding was an increase in total deaths for cholesterol levels below 160. The final major NIH study was the Lipid Research Clinics Coronary Primary Prevention Trial (LRC), a project that cost $150 million and received intense media attention. All subjects in the trial were put on a low-cholesterol, low-saturated fat diet. One group received a cholesterol lowering drug, the other a placebo. Average cholesterol reduction for the drug group was 8.6% which had, according to researchers, a 17% reduction in rate of heart disease. This led to the oft repeated statement: "For each 1% reduction in cholesterol, we can expect a 2% reduction in CHD events." But when independent researchers tallied the LRC data, they found no difference in CHD between the two groups. An unequivocal but rarely published finding of the LRC was an increase in deaths from cancer, intestinal disease, stroke, violence, and suicide in the group taking the cholesterol-lowering drug. Both the popular press and medical journals portrayed the LRC as the long-sought proof that animal fats and dietary cholesterol are the cause of heart disease. The 1984 government-sponsored Cholesterol Consensus Conference called for mass cholesterol screening and defined all Americans with cholesterol levels over 200 as "at risk." Participating scientists recommended the prudent diet for "at risk" Americans, one low in saturated fat and cholesterol. A specific recommendation was the replacement of butter with margarine. The ensuing National Cholesterol Education Program instructed American physicians in techniques for lowering serum cholesterol through diet and drugs. The estimated current cost for cholesterol screening and treatment in the United States now exceeds $60 billion annually. The application of a modicum of common sense could have prevented the massive expenditures lavished on the lipid hypothesis during the past 30 years. The lipid hypothesis implies that animal fat consumption must have increased significantly since 1920 to correlate with the rise in heart disease, but in fact the consumption of saturated animal fats in America declined steadily during that period, while use of vegetable fats increased dramatically. Autopsy studies of vegetarians reveal that although they have lower serum cholesterol values than non-vegetarians, they have as much atherosclerosis as non-vegetarians. > 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.