Cholesterol Doesn’t Cause Heart Disease Shocking, but true. According to Christie Ballantyne, MD, a car-
diologist at Baylor College of Medicine, “The majority of people who end up having heart attacks or stroke don’t have high cholesterol.” The landmark Framingham Heart Study was launched in 1948 to identify the common factors that contribute to coronary artery disease (CAD) by following CAD over a long time period in a large group of people who had not yet developed overt symptoms of CAD or suffered a heart attack or stroke. Almost the entire town of Framingham, MA was followed for 50 years. The results showed that, with one exception, there was no discernible association between reported diet intake and serum cholesterol. (The one exception was a weak negative association be- tween caloric intake and serum cholesterol level in men. As caloric intake went down, serum cholesterol went up.) Regarding CAD and cholesterol, no relationship was found. In fact, according to Malcolm Kendrick, MD, commenting on
the study, “There is a direct association between falling cholesterol levels during the first 14 years and mortality during the following 18 years.” In other words, death rates went up as cholesterol levels went down!
Sadly, this didn’t stop researchers from misrepresenting the data. After all, if certain data don’t fit your hypothesis (or agenda), just ignore the data! As Dr. William B. Kannel, director of the Framing- ham Study, has stated, although there is no discernible relationship between reported diet intake and serum cholesterol levels in the study, “it is incorrect to interpret this finding to mean that diet has no connection with blood cholesterol.” Oh really?
In his attempt to demonize the fast food industry, Morgan
Spurlock, producer of the documentary film “Super Size Me,” ate at McDonald’s for a month. He gained 25 pounds, his body fat percent- age increased from 11% to 18%, his liver was showing signs of dam- age, and his total cholesterol increased from 168 to 225. However, Spurlock ate over 5,000 calories and a gallon of soda a day! In response, comedian Tom Naughton wrote and produced the
movie “Fat Head.” He, too, ate at McDonald’s for a month. How- ever, he limited his total daily carbs to less than 100 grams, and kept his total daily calories to around 2200. He nonetheless ate the cheeseburgers and fried chicken – not the salads – essentially feast- ing on protein and saturated fat. At the end of 28 days he had lost 12 pounds. His total cholesterol remained essentially unchanged (231 to 222), and his body fat decreased from 31.2% to 28.2%.
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