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setts showed very clearly that the
initiallevel ofcholesterol in the blood
of a large number of people living in
the town correlated extremely well
with their subsequent development
ofheart disease and their death from
coronary heart disease.
Briggs, however , argues.that sorne
people can be very healthy even
with a diet rich in cholesterol.
"Should we decrease the cholesterol
content of our diet? The answer to
tbat depends a lot on your particu–
lar inheritance and whether or not
you have a heart disease risk factor ·
in yourself or in your family. The
experience with the Seventh-Day
. Adventists and Mormons in this
country has shown that we can eat
cholesterol-containing foods and
still be very, very healthy."
The controversy over cholesterol
in the diet has not been completely
resolved, but most authorities agree
that elevated blood levels of choles–
terol are closely linked with heart
disease.
Diabetes: A Modem Klller
Diabetes is yet another disease that
seems to be connected to our mod–
ern diets.
As the affiuent diet has spread,
the incidence of diabetes has risen
throughout the world. In poor coun–
tries, diabetes appears to be mainly
an urban disease; in rich countries,
it affects urban and rural residents
alike.
In the United States in 1900, diabe–
tes was the twenty-seventh most com–
mon cause of death. By the mid-
1970s, it moved up to fifth place. In
fact, the number ofreported cases in
the United States jumped 50 percent
in the eight-year period from 1965 to
1973. Diabetes is a major cause of
blindness. And if the heart diseases,
circulatory problems, kidney dis–
orders and other potentially fatal
complications of diabetes are added
to its annual directdeath toll, diabetes
emerges as the third most important
killer, trailing only cardiovascular
disease and cancer.
Significantly, epidemiological
studies tend to show that diabetes
occurs with greater frequency in pop–
ulations where there's a high intake of
sugar. A study of Yemenite Jews in
Israel was a classic example. This
study found that people who moved
26
into Israel from Yemen didn'tchange
their eating habits for about the first
twenty years that they lived in the new
country. Then they began to adopt
the eating patterns of the lsraelis,
which included a much greater intake
of sugar. As a result , they became
more obese and s.uffered a higher
incidence of diabetes.
Of course, cause and etfect rela–
tionships are often very difficult to
establish, and many authorities
hesitate to say that dietary sugar
causes diabetes. But they agree that
obesity and diabetes are closely
linked. Eighty percent of patients
who become diabetic a re obese at
the time the diabetes is discovered.
Dlet, Hypertenslon and Cancer
Hypertension, or high blood pres–
sure,
is
also a cause for concern as
one of the most common illnesses in
the world today.
Hypertension can shorten its vic–
tims' lives. A 35-year-old American
roan with blood pressure 14 percent
above normal for bis age has lost
about nine years off bis life ex–
pectancy. A 45-year-old roan whose
blood pressure is 17 percent or more
above normal runs twice the risk of a
heart attack and four times the risk of
a stroke than a roan with blood pres–
sure slightly lower than normal.
Research has firmly established a
link between high salt consumption
and high blood pressure in test ani–
mals. And the evidence strongly
suggests that high salt intake con–
tributes significantly to hypertension
in humans as well.
Yet the average person in an in–
dustrial country consumes at least
ten times more salt than the body
actually requires.
Even cancer seems to be linked
with our affiuent pattern of eating.
Of course, people who think about a
link between diet and cancer often
consider only chemical food add–
itives. Synthetic additives do pose
real enough problems, but research
over the last quarter century points
to dietary factors that may inftuence
cancer rates far more.
Without question a high-fat diet
contributes to the development of
several important types of cancer,
including those of the colon, rectum,
breast, and prostate gland. Current
evidence relates diet to as much as
50 percent of all cancers in women
and one-third of all cancers in roen.
Since about one in every four
people in the industrial countries
develops cancer, and one in five
people dies from it, the toll of
diet-related cancers looms large
indeed.
So what's the answer? Are we
doomed to reap the devastating har–
vest of degenerative diseases that
are being linked to modern dietary
habits?
What You Can Do
An 85-page report recently released
by the U.S. Senate's Select Com–
mittee on Nutrition and Human
Needs provides sorne valuable rec–
ommendations we should all seri–
ously consider.
The report recommends that
Americans reduce their con–
sumption of fats from about 40 per–
cent to 30 percent of total calorie
intake (decrease their intake of satu–
rated fats particularly), and increase
their consumption of complex car–
bohydrates (fresh fruits, vegetables,
whole grains) while reducing the
amount of sugar in the diet and the
reliance on highly refined foods.
To accomplish these goals, the
committee suggests the following
changes in food selection and prep–
aration:
1) Increase consumption of fruits ,
vegetables, whole grains and le–
gumes.
2) Decrease consumption of meat
and increase consumption of
poultry and fish.
3) Decrease consumption of foods
high in fat and partially substitute
polyunsaturated fat for saturated
fat.
4) Substitute nonfat milk for
whole milk.
5) Decrease consumption of but–
terfat, eggs, and other high-choles–
terol sources.
6) Decrease consumption of sugar
and foods high in sugar content.
7) Decrease consumption of salt
and foods high in salt content.
Senator George McGove rn ,
chairman of the committee, states in
the introduction to the report: "The
simple fact is that our diets have
changed radically within the last 50
years, with great and often very
(Continued on page 41)
The
PLAIN TRUTH August 1978