Lipid Nutrition Guidelines

Ever since the publication of Ancel Keys' watershed 'Seven Countries Study' in 1970 medical thinking has posited a causal link between the intake of animal fats and coronary heart disease. The research of Prof. Harumi Okuyama and his colleagues presented in this new publication suggests that this link is in fact tenuous. It goes beyond that to suggest that current medical wisdom regarding lipid nutrition may actually be counterproductive. This ground-breaking analysis is likely to be debated for many years to come.The 'Seven Countries Study' which identified the specifics of the Mediterranean Diet and awarded it a central position in combating coronary heart disease triggered significant changes in Western diets. Most notably it stimulated a widespread attempt to reduce animal fats and replace them with vegetable fats. The low-density lipoprotein (LDL) element of the cholesterol naturally present in animal-source foods was dubbed a killer and a significant industry developed around the provision of plant-based oils and fats. The clinical consensus on cholesterol was further strengthened in 1987 by the introduction of statins an innovative class of drugs that reduce LDL production in the liver and are designed to help guard against coronary heart disease.Thirteen Nobel Prizes have been awarded to scientists who devoted major parts of their careers to cholesterol research. It is therefore a brave research team that dares to challenge the link between animal fats and coronary heart disease. This however is precisely what Prof. Okuyama and his team set out to do in this book. They actually recommend increasing the intake of cholesterol and animal fats to an extent that does not lead to obesity.This recommendation is based on the discovery by Prof. Okuyama and his team that common vegetable oils such as canola and hydrogenated vegetable fats have toxic effects. They demonstrate that hydrogenated vegetable fats and oils are important culprits in atherosclerosis and other lifestyle diseases and suggest that high total or LDL-cholesterol is not the cause of atherosclerosis or cardiovascular disease.Further they argue that current medical guidelines on lipid nutrition conflict with evidence-based research and that persistently focusing on LDL-cholesterol as the cause of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) is counterproductive.