I did know of the cholesterol-saturated fat position as the cause of heart disease during the time I was a graduate student in the biochemical sciences. I followed the main line of thought and for years pursued a low fat diet.

But I didn’t know the conclusions of Ancel Keys, his fellow researchers, and supporters were challenged by many other scientists in the scientific literature.

Although I had access to the scientific literature, yet I didn’t know some scientists described different causes for the modern nutritional diseases of:
• obesity and insulin resistance,
• adult onset diabetes,
• heart disease,
• stroke, and
• cancer.

Certainly main stream Americans would have no way of knowing that dietary cholesterol and saturated fat are not the cause of heart disease and the other modern nutritional diseases according to many physicians and scientists.

Scientific literature is just unavailable to most Americans from the stand point of cost, a tremendous investment in time, and understanding the jargon of scientific literature.

I have never heard the media present both sides of the diet-heart controversy, which is that saturated fat and cholesterol are not the cause of heart disease. Could it be because the food processing and pharmaceutical drug industries give the media an unending supply of advertising dollars?

Has the love of money and power driven this country in a very unfortunate nutritional path that has led to increasing disease and ill health? It has almost destroyed the family farm, and has given us inferior products that contribute to our ill health.

This controversy has been effectively silenced in mainstream America by the bombardment of advertising carrying only the message of the drug and food manufacturing companies.

A Prescription For Knowledge

An East Texas cardiologist, Peter Langsjoen M.D., gave me a “prescription” for 3 books on a routine follow up visit. One book was Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon with Mary Enig Ph.D., which has an impressive array of recipes based on nutrient rich traditional foods. There are many references and editorials that proclaim the wisdom of nutrient rich traditional foods.

A second book was The Modern Nutritional Diseases.by Drs. Fred and Alice Ottoboni. The Ottobonis are retired Public Health Service scientists who for years have been concerned with disease and its prevention. Their consideration of this area was through a health warning to one of them.

The last book was The Cholesterol Myths EXPOSING THE FALLACY THAT SATURATED FAT AND CHOLESTEROL CAUSE HEART DISEASE by Uffe Ravnskov, M.D., Ph.D. Dr. Ravnskov is a practicing physician and researcher who delved into the literature and discovered there was little or no correlation of saturated fat and cholesterol with heart disease in the original data of the many studies in this area.

It didn’t take long in reading these and other resources to realize I was one of the many who had been duped into following a faulty diet for years. I finally understood the differences between nutrient rich traditional foods and modern examples of food manufacturing many of which have lots of calories but few nutrients.