Fat On Trial. Part 3

Many other fat preventing agents have been discovered and found wanting. For example, my associates and I found, more than 10 years ago, that in various experimental animals certain members of the Vitamin-B complex were effective in preventing and treating atherosclerosis. These protective, vitamin-like agents were called lipotropic, or fat preventing. Although these findings were repeated and corroborated by many investigators, many medical scientists could not agree, and the use of such fat preventing agents never became generally accepted. Subsequently, they have been replaced by more promising medicines in the treatment of heart attacks and strokes. Another promising substance was heparin, which is a fat-clearing, anti-clotting medicine. Dr. Hyman Engelberg and other investigators have found heparin very valuable for controlling blood fats in the treatment of heart cases. Various other physicians, however, do not agree with these results. Moreover, the necessity of injecting heparin at frequent intervals and the need for greatest care in its administration made it difficult to use it on a wide scale. In certain cases, thyroid extract has been effective in reducing excessive cholesterol and fats in the blood. It was most helpful in those patients who had a sluggish or abnormally low basal metabolism rate, a sign of an underfunctioning thyroid gland. But unfortunately, it has not proved generally effective in all cases.

Years ago, my co-workers and I explored the potential of plant sterols as fighters of fat. These sterols, which are plant or vegtable extracts, when eaten, block the absorption of cholesterol and fats from the intestine. Some interesting results were obtained, but their action was variable at best. Many of these plant extracts were not practical because large quantities had to be consumed before each meal. Female sex hormones have been widely explored. Many investigators have advocated their use in controlling fat metabolism in the blood and arteries. Here too, the results of treatment in cases of heart disease were interesting, but treatment was handicapped by the feminizing effects that such hormones had on men. Thus the need for something that would be useful to all people, something that would bring definite results in fighting off the killer, fat, remained. The low-fat diet holds great promise for everyone, whether the person has atherosclerosis or not. The low-fat way of life can be followed by anyone, anywhere, and it is simple, safe, effective. Let us see why.

How the low-fat diet proved its value. Throughout the world, fats and heart disease appear to be inseparable companions. When investigators found one, they generally found the other, no matter in what countries they searched. A host of reports began to pour in on the scarcity or absence of heart, brain, and vascular disease in those populations where a low-cholesterol, low-fat diet were common. (Example: Asians, Africans, Costa Ricans, Okinawans, Chinese, Ceylonese, and Bantus.) In sharp contrast, the exact reverse was found in those parts of the world where a high-fat diet was prevalent. A high rate of atherosclerosis of the heart, brain, and kidney was common in the countries of Europe and in the United States and Canada. Pathologists, doctors, and medical researchers, have since produced overwhelming evidence to show that when blood cholesterol and fats are high, the arteries were correspondingly high in the degree of damage or destruction by atherosclerosis. And when the blood levels of fat were low, the damage to heart and brain was also low. I became convinced that the killer had been identified.

This conviction I arrived at in the following way: I decided to see what the effects would be of stopping one group of patients from eating fats and comparing them with another group who continued to eat the usual amounts of fats found in the American diet. It was important to work with people who had proven cases of atherosclerosis. I therefore selected 100 patients who had survived heart attacks or coronary thromboses and who had been discharged from the hospital. These patients had all had atherosclerosis of the coronary arteries and were ideal for the purpose of proving or disproving the whole concept of high fat as the cause of heart attacks. The 100 cases were divided into two groups of 50 patients each. One group was placed on a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet; the other continued on a diet containing the regular fat intake that they had grown accustomed to before their heart attacks occurred.

Both groups were carefully observed for over 10 years. By the end of the third year, the answer began to grow clear. At the end of eight years of study, the answer was conclusive. Of the 50 patients who ate their regular dietary fat quota, 38 (or 76 per cent) had died of arterial or heart diseases. Of the 50 people who had followed the low-fat diet faithfully, only 22 (or 44 per cent) had died of the same illnesses. In other words, the low-fat diet had enabled heart patients to live twice as long as those who followed a regular diet and had saved a significant number of lives in the process.