 |
Tuberose.com
Information for Transformation |
|
This self-help alternative medicine site offers extensive educational information on the topics of natural healing, holistic and biological dentistry, herbal medicine, cleansing and detoxification, heavy metal detox, diet, nutrition, weight loss, and the finest, tried and tested health equipment and products available for the natural management of health. |
|
Cholesterol
Cholesterol Metabolism
One of the most maligned of all nutrients is cholesterol. Even sodium is not so greatly feared. Far from being a health destroyer, cholesterol is absolutely essential for life. Ordinary cholesterol is a miracle of evolution. Cholesterol is a very important substance that makes it possible to transport life-giving soluble substances throughout the body using the water of the blood stream. With it, our bodies make essential hormones and vitamin D (with sunlight). Low cholesterol is a symptom of depression and cancer. It is so important that if cholesterol intake is restricted, our livers make more. Although most people think of it as being “fat in the blood,” only seven percent of the body’s cholesterol is found in the blood. In fact, cholesterol is not really fat at all; it’s a pearly-colored, waxy, solid alcohol that is soapy to the touch. The bulk of the cholesterol in your body, the other 93 percent, is located in every cell of the body, where its unique waxy, soapy consistency provides the cell membranes with their structural integrity and regulates the flow of nutrients into–and waste products out of–the cells.
Cholesterol is the most highly decorated small molecule in biology. Thirteen Nobel Prizes have been awarded to scientists who devoted major parts of their careers to cholesterol. Ever since it was first isolated from gallstones in 1784, cholesterol has exerted an almost hypnotic fascination for scientists from the most diverse areas of science and medicine. As early as 1858 Virchow, the father of modern pathology, clearly showed that cholesterol does not start the process but that it is the end product of degeneration. Damage to the tissue became evident first, and then came an accumulation of fat, and finally, as the scar tissue was formed, a high content of cholesterol appeared. It was part of the healing process of a wound from damage caused by something else. This sequence of events has been confirmed repeatedly in the past 30 years. Cholesterol and triglycerides are natural body fats with definite roles to play. They are produced in the liver to serve their functions in the body. The terms fat and lipid mean the same thing. Fats are chemical substances that do no dissolve in water and will float to the surface when placed in water. Since blood is mostly water, fats will not dissolve in blood. Kleiner & Orten’s Textbook of Biochemistry, 6th edition, relates the following:
“(1) Cholesterol is absorbed from the intestines if there is fatty acid absorption simultaneously, (2) bile is essential to intestinal cholesterol and fatty acid absorption, (3) excess cholesterol in the blood is excreted by the intestine and by the liver in bile, (4) plant or vegetation sterols are not absorbed, (5) cholesterol is essential to life and if absent from the diet, it is synthesized in the body, (6) as with fatty acids, the biosynthesis of cholesterol begins with acetyl-CoA (coenzyme A). Dietary cholesterol has been greatly feared as the cause of heart failure. However, no study done to date definitely correlates cholesterol with heart disease–the cholesterol nonsense is a sham. “
In 1998 the American Medical Association held a press conference and told doctors that public concern over elevated cholesterol was not warranted, and in the same year, the AMA also warned that common cholesterol lowering drugs (statins) are carcinogenic, saying: “All members of the two most popular classes of lipid-lowering drugs (the fibrins and the statins) cause cancer in rodents, in some cases at levels of animal exposure close to those prescribed to humans.” More recently, one of these drugs, Baycol, was linked to hundreds of deaths and removed from the market by the US Food and Drug Administration.
The more cholesterol-rich foods eaten, the less cholesterol the body makes. Read any university biochemistry text. If cholesterol metabolism is discussed, that fact is usually read in the first three or four paragraphs. The term atherogenic means conducive to, or causing the formation of atheromatous lesions (plaque) in the lining of arteries and hypercholesterolemia means elevated levels of cholesterol in the blood. Cholesterol is the building block from which your body makes several important hormones. The adrenal hormones aldosterone, which helps regulate blood pressure and hydrocortisone, the body’s natural steroid, and the sex hormones (estrogen and testosterone). If you don’t have enough cholesterol, you won’t make enough sex hormones. Cholesterol is the main component of bile acids, which aid in the digestion of foods, particularly fatty foods. Without cholesterol we could not absorb the essential fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K from the food we eat. Cholesterol is necessary for normal growth and development of the brain and nervous system. Cholesterol coats the nerves and makes the transmission of nerve impulses possible. Cholesterol gives skin its ability to shed water. Cholesterol is a precursor of vitamin D in the skin. When exposed to sunlight, this precursor molecule is converted to its active form for use in the body. Cholesterol is important for normal growth and repair of tissues since every cell membrane, and the organelles with the cells, are rich in cholesterol. Cholesterol plays a major role in the transportation of triglycerides through the circulatory system. Without it you would die. Without cholesterol we would lose the strength and stability of our cells, rendering them much less resistant to invasion by infection and malignancy. In fact, a grave sign of serious illness is a falling cholesterol level. Understanding this should dispel any notion that it is a destroyer of health to be feared and avoided.
Most cholesterol studies conclude by summarizing that the “evidence seems to suggest,” but the causal relationship between cholesterol and coronary heart disease is still to be established. Hypertension (high blood pressure) and ionizing radiation are the cause of the damage, not cholesterol. Hypertension, mercury, and medical x-rays damage the artery and set in motion some of the processes leading to narrowing of artery channels for blood flow and thickening and hardening of the blood vessel walls. More than 60 million Americans have hypertension. The final
Autopsies consistently show no relationship between the blood cholesterol level and the amount of plaque in the arteries. According to DeBakey, “Because of the involvement of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the American Heart Association and advertisements of low cholesterol products, practitioners have shown a tendency to ignore the new studies, considering them to be exceptions to the rule...studies showing that eating cholesterol does not cause heart disease, and evidence showing that avoiding cholesterol does not prevent heart disease,” according to Richard Passwater. He continued, “Dr. Earl Benditt’s group at the
Sticky platelets occur when the diet contains too much saturated fatty acids, and sugars, and too little of the highly unsaturated fatty acids. Sticky platelets lead to blood clots, which may lodge in any artery going to any part of the body. They precede the occurrence of coronary heart attacks, strokes, lung clots, clots in the limbs, the eyes or wherever. A diet high in non-essential fatty acids and refined carbohydrate produces an excess of acetate fragments in the body, and thus ‘pressures’ the body into increased cholesterol production. And there you have the reason for the high cholesterol levels of most of the people in the ‘processed foods’ nations. Harper’s Review of Biochemistry, 18th edition, reveals: “The greater part of cholesterol of the body arises by synthesis (about 1 g/d), whereas only about 0.3 g/d are provided by the average diet. All tissues containing nucleated cells are capable of synthesizing cholesterol, particularly the liver, adrenal cortex, skin, intestines, testes and aorta. Acetyl-CoA is the source of all the carbon atoms in cholesterol.” All cholesterol comes from animal sources, so if you want to be sure of zero cholesterol intake, strict vegetarianism is your ticket. No meat, no eggs, no dairy products. Although cholesterol consumption has remained about constant during the last 100 years, cardiovascular disease has risen 350% and cancer 600% in the same time period. Cholesterol consumption cannot be the cause of these disorders. Factors which appear to be more closely related to cardiovascular disease than cholesterol levels are consumption of sugar, oil, additives, trans-fatty acids, drugs which lower cholesterol, deficiencies of vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids.
Your body makes cholesterol. The cells in the human body can make all the cholesterol they need for their membrane requirements. Cells manufacture cholesterol in response to demand. For instance, when someone drinks alcohol, the alcohol dissolves in the membranes, making them more fluid. In response, the cells will manufacture cholesterol, build it into the membrane, and thereby bring the membrane back to its proper state. As the alcohol wears off, hardening the membrane, no more cholesterol is made, and some of the cholesterol in the membrane is taken out, again establishing the normal membrane fluidity. The extra cholesterol is then hooked up (esterified) with linoleic acid and shipped off to the liver to be changed into bile acids, provided that the vitamins and minerals necessary for this change are present in a biologically usable form. The bile acids are dumped into the intestine and help there with fat digestion, and are then removed from the body with the wastes in the colon, provided that the food contains sufficient fiber, and that bowel action is regular enough to prevent the bile acids from being reabsorbed and recycled. In man, the brain and spinal cord make up only 2% of the body weight; still 23% of the cholesterol is in the nervous system. Besides the cells’ production of cholesterol, the liver, intestines, adrenal glands and sex glands all make cholesterol for the other functions in which cholesterol is involved. Cholesterol is the basic material of which steroids are made; the body uses over sixty steroids derived from cholesterol for hormones. During pregnancy, the placenta also makes cholesterol, and from it manufactures progesterone, which keeps the pregnancy from being terminated. So important is cholesterol that the body has maintained its independence from external sources: cholesterol can be synthesized from a variety of important materials.
Lipoproteins
Lipoproteins are combinations of fats and proteins. Unlike the lipids, these dissolve in water, and therefore in blood. The body surrounds the lipids with proteins in order to be able to transport them through the bloodstream. There are five types of lipoproteins for transporting the blood lipids: high density lipoprotein, (HDL), low density lipoprotein (LDL), very low density lipoprotein (VLDL), intermediate density lipoprotein (IDL), and chylomicrons. High density lipoproteins are the so-called “good” cholesterol. If you have a lot of these in your blood, your risk of heart disease is apparently lower. Conversely, if you have a lot of low density lipoprotein in your blood your risk of heart disease is higher. Each lipoprotein favors one of the lipids over the others. The largest lipoprotein is the chylomicron, which carries mostly triglycerides from the diet. Triglycerides that are manufactured in the liver are carried by the next largest lipoprotein, which is the very low density lipoprotein. These VLDLs may be broken down into intermediate density lipoprotein and then low density lipoprotein. This process releases the triglycerides, leaving the LDLs as the major carrier of cholesterol in the blood. The smallest particle is the high density lipoprotein, which carries mostly cholesterol that has been manufactured in the liver and intestine.
Mercury vapor is fat (lipid) soluble and it has now been scientifically established that bearers of dental amalgam fillings are chronically exposed to mercury vapor from these fillings. This exposure persists all the time. The elevations in blood fats may be the body’s response to this long lasting exposure to mercury vapor, perhaps an attempt to prevent the mercury vapor from reaching vital body cells.
If an individual is constantly exposed to a poison that can be dissolved in fats, such as mercury vapor, perhaps the cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood are re-programmed to become a defense mechanism against the poison. Elevated levels of cholesterol and/or triglycerides in the blood could then be found as a defense response to chronic exposure to a fat soluble poison, namely mercury. The presence of mercury vapor could also alter the blood fats, preventing them from performing their normal body functions. Mercury and cadmium cause the breakdown of ADP (adenosine diphosphate) by inhibition of vessel wall ADPase which plays an important role in the genesis of thrombotic phenomena.
Thrombosis of glomerular capillaries, selective damage to vascular endothelium, induction and progression of atherosclerosis and hypertension have been ascribed by many authors to several heavy metals. Mercury damages the inner lining of arteries and leads to plaque buildup. Exposure to inhaled mercury vapor, causes an elevation of plasma cholesterol together with the deposit of cholesterol in arteries, especially the aorta. Much evidence is accumulating that so-called “bad” (LDL) cholesterol is no more dangerous than calcium. However, there is a component of cholesterol, a lipid that used to be grouped with LDL, that does signal danger when it is elevated, called lipoprotein(a) or Lp(a), as a significant risk factor in heart disease. Linus Pauling and Matthias Rath, who singled out lipoprotein(a), say Lp(a) acts as a surrogate for chronic low vitamin C. Unfortunately, lipid lowering drugs do not lower Lp(a). A recent
The Cholesterol Molecule
The building blocks for the manufacture of cholesterol are 2-carbon fragments called acetate, which are hooked end-to-end until 30 of them are chained together. Through many steps involving many different enzyme catalysts, this chain is cyclized, and finally 3 carbons are clipped from different parts, to arrive at the 27 carbon, cholesterol molecule. The process is complex and interesting for biochemists, but the important question, which bears on nutrition is: where does the 2-carbon acetate fragment come from? When fats and oils (fatty acids) are broken down for energy, they are broken into 2-carbon fragments. Since the body, for other vital functions, conserves the essential fatty acids, the saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids are the main source of acetate fragments from the fats. When carbohydrate (sugars and starches) is broken down for energy, they too produce the 2-carbon fragments. Protein (amino acids) also can be broken down to produce acetate fragments, but the body conserves amino acids for building important structures, so protein is burned for energy only in extreme circumstances such as fasting, some disease states and when inordinately large amounts of protein are consumed. Keep in mind that the greater part of cholesterol in the body arises by synthesis (about 1 g/d); whereas, only a very small part of serum cholesterol is derived from food (about 0.3 g/d).
All tissues containing nucleated cells can produce cholesterol and the regulation of cholesterol biosynthesis is very complex. For example:
Stage 1–Three molecules of acetyl-CoA combine to form mevalonate.
Stage 2–Mevalonate combines with three phosphate groups, loses a carboxyl group and two hydrogen atoms to yield isopentenyl pyrophosphate.
Stage 3–Six isopentenyl groups combine, lose their pyrophosphate groups and yield squalene.
Stage 4–In a series of enzyme reactions, squalene is cyclized to form lanosterol.
Stage 5–Lanosterol, after four biochemical reactions, is converted into cholesterol.
Now, this is one of the most complex biochemical processes elucidated to date. The body really goes to an awful lot of trouble to produce cholesterol–the killer! And, remember, the body manufactures more than three times as much cholesterol as is derived from diet. Something does not add up toward supporting the cholesterol/atherosclerosis hypothesis. Pathologists have long known that after total thyroidectomy, autopsies revealed an exaggerated hardening of the arteries. Without normal thyroid function, no organ of the body works efficiently, especially the heart. Mercury vapor from amalgam dental fillings creates dysfunction of the thyroid gland and its governor, the pituitary gland. The over- or under-production of thyroid hormones will affect overall body function. A report by Von Eilsberg in 1895 clearly showed that removal of the thyroid from the sheep or goat would produce arterial degeneration in arteries throughout the animal including the coronary vessels supplying the heart. It was animals that eat only plants that were chosen for the experiment and these animals never eat cholesterol-containing foods. Cholesterol is not found in the plant world. This early experiment clearly demonstrated that thyroid deficiency, and not dietary cholesterol, was implicated in arterial degeneration whose characteristics were similar to those in humans. Hypothyroidism is a lack of proper thyroid hormone secretion–leading to a reduction in the basal metabolism of 50% or more. CO2 production is decreased, as is oxygen consumption.
How Did It Start?
The “big lie” got started and was persistently repeated until almost every doctor in
“In 1971, the general counsel of the FDA–the man in charge of prosecuting any violations of FDA regulations (including those of mis-labeled polyunsaturated products)–left the FDA to become president of the
A cholesterol level in your blood over 340 mg/dl is a symptom of a problem in your body–not the cause of a problem. Cholesterol is required for the proper functioning of every body cell, but the Basic American Diet, severely deficient in the vitamins, minerals and fiber required to metabolize cholesterol and fat, becomes overloaded with cholesterol. Today, from cholesterol screening, many persons think they are candidates for a heart attack when they have absolutely safe and typical cholesterol. What’s really typical? 120 to 340 mg/dL. The usual mean cholesterol levels for both sexes is considered to be:
AGE CHOLESTEROL
30 - 39 150 - 280
40 - 49 160 - 325
50 - 59 140 - 340
Most of this is found in the membranes and about 7 grams is carried in the blood. The daily turnover is about 1100 mg, or just over 1 gram. Meat eaters turn over more as their consumption of cholesterol increases. Anxiety and/or apprehension–like dropping a book–can elevate serum cholesterol 100 points. Fear of cholesterol can do the same. Vitamins C and B3 lower blood cholesterol levels, as do the minerals calcium, zinc, chromium and selenium. The essential and other highly unsaturated fatty acids are important. A strict vegetarian diet increases the vitamin, mineral and essential fatty acid content, and also lowers the fat (especially saturated) intake. Two quarts of milk per day can raise cholesterol from 180 mg/dl to 400 mg/dl in less than 2 months. Milk is low in several vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids. Excess body fat increases blood cholesterol and CVD. Losing weight lowers the risk and the cholesterol level. Excess refined sugars, refined starches, refined or altered fats and oils raise cholesterol.
Return to natural complex, high fiber carbohydrates and natural unrefined fats and oils lowers cholesterol. Smoking and caffeine raise cholesterol and CVD. Quitting reverses the trend. Even though no one scientific study done establishes a relationship between cholesterol and heart disease, the warnings pop-up almost daily in the headlines of newspapers, magazines, medical journals, health periodicals and health advocates on TV, announcing the dangers of cholesterol and its relation to heart disease. Warnings about ingestion of butter, eggs and dairy products turn the public to more counterfeit, synthetic and refined foods–the actual chemicalized and processed “phony foods” that contribute to heart disease and atherosclerosis.
Lipid Lowering Drugs
There is little evidence that lowering cholesterol protects human beings from heart disease. In fact, of those who suffer heart attacks under age 50, more than 50 percent have no recognized risk factors. There is absolutely no evidence anywhere that normal cholesterol floating around in the blood does any harm, Even slightly low levels of cholesterol are associated with depression, suicide, and lung cancer in older women. For most people, eating high cholesterol foods does not raise cholesterol. There are no studies showing that women benefit from these drugs–all of the studies showing even marginal benefits have been done on men. Nor are there any studies showing that they reduce heart attacks or death in men aged 65 to 75. Since heart disease takes decades to develop, it’s highly unlikely that cholesterol-lowering drugs will help anyone over the age of 75. That leaves men aged 35 to 55, but even here the evidence of benefit is slim, and the possible side effects are huge. If the American public had even a clue of how destructive these drugs are, they wouldn’t touch them. Every information sheet on the most commonly prescribed cholesterol-lowering drugs will tell you that they cause cancer in rodents when taken long-term in relatively normal doses. It’s also well-known that they can cause severe emotional imbalances in men, along with a wide array of life-threatening side effects. The wisest course of action is to avoid these drugs.
High cholesterol is a symptom of an underlying nutritional deficiency and/or x-radiation and metal toxicity that damages the arteries, rather than the cause. Lipid-lowering drugs inhibit the formation of cholesterol by the liver; some might say they “damage” the liver. This mechanism also has other unwanted effects. In 1987, Merck made headlines when it came out with Mevacor (lovastatin), the first cholesterol-lowering statin drug.
Statins block enzyme pathways involved in the production of cholesterol, thereby lowering cholesterol levels. But that’s not all these drugs do. The same enzymes that are involved in the production of cholesterol are also required for the production of an essential compound called coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10). Coenzyme Q10–also called ubiquinone–plays an important role in the manufacture of ATP, the fuel that runs cellular processes. Though it is present in every cell in your body, it is especially concentrated in the very active cells of your heart. Depriving the heart of CoQ10 is like removing a spark plug from your engine–it just won’t work. Low levels of CoQ10 are implicated in virtually all cardiovascular diseases, including angina, hypertension, cardiomyopathy and congestive heart failure. Merck knew that statins deplete CoQ10 and knew that this could contribute to heart disease. In 1990, this drug manufacturer sought and received a patent for Mevacor and other statin drugs formulated with up to 1,000 mg of coenzyme Q10 to prevent or alleviate cardiomyopathy, a serious condition that can cause congestive heart failure. However, Merck has not brought these combination products to market, nor has this drug company educated physicians on the importance of supplementing CoQ10 to offset the dangers of these drugs to the heart. Because they hold the patent, other drug companies are prevented from coming out with a statin/CoQ10 product. If you’re taking a statin drug (Zocor, Provacol, etc.), don’t wait for your doctor to warn you of the substantial risks. Consider this fact: in the time that statins have been on the market, the incidence of congestive heart failure has tripled. If you want to avoid becoming a statistic, it is imperative that you take 200 mg of coenzyme Q10 daily.
One of the nation’s leading authorities on heart disease and hypertension. Dr. Norman Kaplan, chief of the Hypertension Division at the University of Texas Health Science Center, Dallas, says he fears several current practices could even prove harmful to the overall health of the patient. “We are making claims that are beyond what we can substantiate with the scientific evidence at hand.” “We have accepted as facts some things which I think are highly questionable.” As an example, Kaplan pointed to his area of expertise, where the aggressive treatment of high blood pressure has been a cornerstone of coronary risk management therapy. Kaplan encouraged his peers to examine studies that have compared treatment of high blood pressure with non-treatment. “In four of the nine studies, the benefits were seen on the wrong side of the graph, meaning those patients who were not treated lived longer,” he said. “Lowering blood pressure to the lowest possible level simply may not be in the best interests of our patients. We are making things worse at the same time that we are trying to make things better,” he said. “Therefore, I think we all have to take a somewhat more cautious and conservative view about the use of active drug therapy for hypertension.” He said he believes diet is the best management approach for most patients with hypercholesterolemia. Unfortunately, he noted, physicians soon will face great pressures to get patients on cholesterol-lowering drug therapy. “Cholesterol management for the next 10 years is going to be where blood pressure management has been for the last 10 years,” he said. “We’re going to see a major push for treating hypercholesterolemia with drugs, and I foresee the same excesses; we will treat too many of them too quickly without appropriate regard for the problems associated with drug therapy.” One problem, he said, is the cost of the therapy. Citing the newest cholesterol-lowering agent as a perfect example, he said, “If you take Lovastatin according to the probable dosage that will be required, the patient will be taking about $3,000 of pills a year. Lovastatin has been approved after only four years of human study and we’re talking about a drug that has a major, major impact on the very basic mechanisms of cholesterol synthesis,” he said. Kaplan noted his stand was not one that would endear him to many of his peers! Decreasing the intake of animal products, and replacing them with foods from plant sources, lowers cholesterol.
Margarine
The history of margarine is shorter. It began in France under Napoleon III, who was looking for a cheap source of nutritional fat to feed the ‘cheap’ classes of people in his country: the army, navy, and the poor. He announced a contest in 1867, inviting inventors to submit recipes and samples. The contest was won by Professor Hippolyte Mege-Mouris, who mixed beef fat (suet) with skim milk to create the first margarine. The most common sources today are oils from seeds, usually the cheapest and most inferior kinds: cotton seed, rape and corn oils. Sometimes fish oil and whale oil is used. Some margarine is made from mixtures of these. Margarine is far cheaper to make than butter and can be sold at a price below that of butter, still leaving a large profit, part of which can be used to continue the media brainwashing. The Government requires margarine manufacturers to fortify their products with synthetic vitamin A to a level comparable with that of butter. Sometimes manufacturers add synthetic vitamin E, since butter has it. Margarine is colored yellow, either with synthetic carotenes or annatto, a plant dye. Margarine also contains emulsifiers (lecithin, mono-and di-glycerides) to keep the oil and water from separating; preservatives (sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, citric acid, calcium disodium & EDTA) to increase shelf life; artificial flavor (diacetyl and lactones, two taste components of “buttery” flavor); milk products for taste; and sometimes salt. Margarine makers have persuasively enlisted health as a powerful selling tool. Margarine is often advertised in a misleading way as high in polyunsaturated fatty acids, which the public equates with good health because the essential fatty acids are also polyunsaturated. Margarine does not contain much of the short chain, easily digestible fatty acids.
The oil from which margarine is made usually contains a good proportion of essential fatty acids. But in the process of partial hydrogenation, much of the content of the essential fatty acids is destroyed or changed into other substances, and the finished product is much lower in essential fatty acids. Margarine’s high content of non-essential 18-carbon fatty acids competes with the essential fatty acids still present, further lowering the functional amount of essential fatty acids in the product. If you leave a portion of margarine sitting out, no bugs will go near it and not a speck of mold will grow on it! This is truly “plastic food.” Between the parent vegetable oil, sometimes labeled pure, and the partially hydrogenated product...there is a world of chemistry that alters, profoundly, the composition and physiochemical properties of natural oils.
Herbert Dutton, one of the oldest and most knowledgeable oil chemists in
Margarine contains harmful, trans-fatty acids in substantial amounts which especially affect the cardiovascular system. Margarine also contains dozens of other non-natural chemicals produced in the process of hydrogenation. Altered fat substances make up almost 10 pounds per year in the Basic American Diet, more than twice the amount of all other food additives combined. Margarine is not good for frying because the unsaturated fatty acids which it still contains are further denatured by heat, light and oxygen. Neither butter nor margarine are reliable sources of essential fatty acids. Expeller-pressed flax oil and hemp seed oil are the best sources. Butter fat carries a factor that promotes heparin (anti-clotting) activity in the bloodstream, which gives protection from high blood cholesterol–keeping the blood from becoming sticky. A report from Oil World, Euromonitor, tells the whole story of how the little Indian maiden in the corn oil TV commercial has been killing millions of northern Europeans and Americans with margarine-induced cardiovascular disease. The study compares the deaths from heart disease in various European countries with their consumption of margarine, butter, and olive oil. Here are some of the conclusions that can be drawn from the report:
•In every country where there has been a low consumption of margarine and a high consumption of either olive oil or butter, there has been a very low incidence of death from heart disease. •No matter whether the population consumed large amounts of butter or not, a high consumption of olive oil (over 11 pounds per year) assured a low incidence of death from heart disease. •In
Among the six countries with the highest mortality from cardiac disease, some had high butter consumption and some did not. The only two significant factors were their enormous consumption of margarine and their low consumption of olive oil. The consistent factors found in those countries with low death rates from heart disease, were very low consumption of margarine and very high consumption of olive oil. The consumption of butter appeared to be irrelevant. This irrelevance is well illustrated by comparing