ABSTRACT
Many leading medical statisticians and some clinical scientists are convinced that people's diets in westernized societies contribute to the high prevalence of long-term illnesses. These common chronic conditions include heart disease and other degenerative disorders such as stroke and some forms of diabetes and of cancer. Despite modern treatments, these diseases can still often be fatal. They are becoming even more important causes of death as life expectancy increases in general and such diseases have time to reach fatal extremes. Moreover, heart attacks and breast cancer kill substantial numbers of people in only their middle age. In addition, if such diseases could be made less prevalent, some of the expense of complicated surgery and new drugs to treat them would be saved.
