UK Food Standards Agency shows its ignorance

Part Three: CHD and saturated fat in indigenous populations

Studies of human populations in a natural setting rarely allow us to compare like with like so that a single difference in diet can be studied. But two populations of Polynesians living on the Pacific atolls, Pukapuka and Tokelau, do provide such an opportunity. In 1981 the relative effects of their diets on cholesterol levels were studied.[13] Coconut was the chief source of energy for both groups; and being over 90% saturated, coconut oil is the world’s most saturated natural fat.

The sole difference between the two populations is that Tokelauans obtain 63% of energy from coconut, compared with only 34% among the Pukapukans. You won’t be surprised to know that with almost twice the saturated fat intake, blood cholesterol levels were higher in Tokelauans. However, cardiovascular disease was equally rare in both populations.

So CHD is rare in Polynesians who eat a high saturated fat diet. It’s the same in the US. Dr William Castelli, Director of the Framingham Study, wrote in 1992: ‘In Framingham, Massachusetts, the more saturated fat one ate, the more cholesterol one ate, the more calories one ate, the lower people’s serum cholesterol. . .’[14]

George Mann conducted extensive studies of the Maasai, whose diet is also very high in saturated fat but who do not suffer from CHD at all. He concluded that:

‘The diet-heart hypothesis has been repeatedly shown to be wrong, and yet, for complicated reasons or pride, profit and prejudice, the hypothesis continues to be exploited by scientists, fund-raising enterprises, food companies and even governmental agencies. The public is being deceived by the greatest health scam of the century.’[15]

And there are many other examples in Asia, the Middle East, even in Europe and North America.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | References