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14
The year cannot be regarded as abnormal. A peak occurred however
at the beginning of the year, and during the middle part the graph
line ran at or near the maximum for the previous ten years. Though
remaining steady towards the end of the year it was considerably below
past peaks of that period.
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 foodstuff's 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and there are also evaporated milks where the butter fat has been
replaced by vegetable fat.
An interesting development was the making of the Skimmed Milk
with Non-Milk Fat Regulations 1960, which came into force in
September, 1961. These, amongst other things, require any label which
carries a claim in relation to coronary disease to bear also a statement of
the kind and amount of fat used. Various brands are mentioned by name.