ABSTRACT
For decades an association of serum cholesterol and fats with atherosclerosis and coronary or cerebral artery disease has been noted. The emphasis on the type and amount of serum lipids and on their deposition in arteries occurred because of the very visible evidence of unusually large deposits of lipid in the arteries nourishing the brain and the heart. It seems particularly sad that these arteries, of all those in our body, should be so vulnerable to this disorder. The heart and brain seem too valuable to be permitted such a weakness. When epidemiologists succeeded in correlating the incidence of coronary and cerebral artery disease with the serum levels of cholesterol (and also with the level of serum triglycerides), a clear linkage of vascular disease to hypercaloric, fat-rich diets was developed. This knowledge led to a major effort to modify some aspects of diet. We have still more to do.
