London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Lewisham 1960

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Lewisham Borough]

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14
Coronary disease
Active research continues, particularly with regard to the dietary
factor, although it is still true to say that results have not yet reached the
stage when dogmatic advice can be given with regard to specific articles
of dietary. Nevertheless, for those adults who are prepared to alter their
dietary regime on a likely possibility rather than a scientific probability,
advice which could be given at this stage would amount to this: eat
sparingly, cut down fats particularly, look askance at foodstuffs with a
high cholesterol content— brains, egg yolk, kidneys, butter— prefer
vegetable and fish oil to animal fat, and take regular exercise. This is
simple advice, easy to follow, and unlikely to do any harm; and it is
advice which quite possibly might do a lot of good. There are, almost
inevitably, "savings" and "provisos" even to these simple rules but the
only one of note here is in relation to vegetable fat: coconut oil is under
some suspicion, while peanut oil is probably advantageous. For cooking
and frying purposes there are now excellent vegetable oils on the market,
and there are also evaporated milks where the butter fat has been
replaced by vegetable fat.

Table 9

Heart and circulation mortality

YearDeaths fromTotal heart and circulation (all ages)Age group 45-65Total deaths in boroughPercentage
Coronary diseasesOther heart diseases*Other circulatory diseases†TotalCoronary diseases(e) of (h)(f) of (h)(g) of (h)
(a)(b)(c)(d)(e)(f)(e)(h)(i)(j)(k)
192835797454115-1993235.8?
19335161176331622271287.1?
1938659139798178-2403337.4?
194358364647129-2359275.5?
194869663759155-2253346.9?
1953775113888140-2502355.6-
19587701098791502433366.2
195128852878894154872542356.13.4
232753786950180892580377.03.5
3331444113888140842502355.63.4
4358387113858176992231387.94.4
5329464115908148942423376.13.9
6385421113919149842513375.93.3
73793691078551601002433356.24.1
8407363109879150992433366.24.1
94 703601189481611102617366.24.2
19603643211137981491022510325.94.1
? means figure not available. *R.G. Code Nos. 19 and 20. †R.G. Code No. 21.