He lived to be 100 Lived by the Mediterranean diet which has a significant

He lived to be 100 Lived by the Mediterranean diet (which has a significant amount of fat in it but it’s mostly the vegetable type) Many people thought Keys work said “cut down on fat totally” but in fact, that’s not what he said He noted there were exceptions to the association between heart disease & fat in diet Maybe some fats were acceptable? Critics pointed out that Keys’ left out populations that did not fit the curve very well Maasai (Kenya, Africa) have a high fat diet (lots of meat) & drink a lot of milk (often mixed with animal’s blood) & they have high cholesterol but low incidence of heart disease Inuit: diet w/ fat & have low incidence of heart disease Australian Aboriginals: High rate of heart disease despite the fact that they have very low blood cholesterol & low animal fat intake Very low in good cholesterol HDL Maybe critics can be criticized as well? Some natives, like the Tokelau, don’t suffer from heart disease but have other problems They don’t have the same kind of medical investigation so stats may not be reliable Data retrieved from 22 countries, but many were outliers In the areas of 30% calories from fat, some had very high rate, some had very low Another researcher, Dr. John Yudkin (English prof.) thinks Keys’ data is interesting Questions if % calories from fat is the only thing heart disease relates to What if we look at sugar intake? He looked into it While Keys’ was writing a paper: “Atherosclerosis, A Problem in Newer Public Health”, Yudkin asked about sugar intake Keys was already aware of it & he addressed it in his paper, saying that fat intake was parallel to sugar’s Yudkin pointed out: NOT NECESSARILY His book: Sweet & Dangerous Looked at several populations Ex. Island of St. Helena, where he pointed out that here the heart disease rate was associated with a low fat diet BUT with high sugar intake Carried out studies to promote his idea

Questioned heart attack patients who turned out to eat sugar 2x more than those who have not had a heart attack Intervention study with young men on a sugar-rich diet. Some of them (~1/3) had  insulin,  cortisol,  weight &  ability of blood platelets to aggregate  can all lead to blood clot formation His idea died for a bit b/c the “lipid hypothesis” BUT it’s coming back with Dr. Robert Lustig Has a video which conveys his idea that people are consuming way too much sugar & that this is the main cause of heart disease Of course, it may be true, but also need to know that we consume lots of FAT now too Triple Bypass Burger (even quadruple!) @ the Heart Attack Grill (Las Vegas) ° ° What’s the truth?! Well, it’s not just 1 of the 2, the overall diet is really important ° ° Heart Disease/Attack  Build-up of plaque in the coronary arteries (which feed the heart)  blood-clot formation  chokes blood supply  heart attack  Risk Factors Low birth weight Males Hypertension (high blood pressure) Constant pressure beating against the artery walls damages the arteries & plaque begins building up