ABSTRACT
Elevated serum cholesterol level is a major link in the chain connecting diet and coronary heart disease (CHD) High alcohol intake increases blood pressure, serum triglyceride levels, and mortality from cardiovascular disease (CVD); light alcohol consumption reduces risk of CHD. A different perspective on diet, CVD, and CHD faults some common assumptions about risks associated with dietary fat and cholesterol and emphasizes cereal products as the mainstay of a nutritional approach to lowering risk. Kromhout reviewed the often disparate results of cross-cultural, prospective, and intervention studies linking dietary fats to serum cholesterol concentrations, CVD, and general health. Many cross-cultural, cohort, and case–control studies and randomized clinical trials indicate that fish oil and fatty fish confer protection against CVD. Frederick Stare reviewed his own lifetime of research, including 50 years of his and other work at Harvard in nutrition, atherosclerosis, and CVD.
