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whereas the animal fats, butter, beef dripping, beef muscle and eggs caused a
rise. However, when the vegetable fats obtained from the seeds and beans are
subjected to a hardening process to convert them into margarine, the linoleic
acid is converted into something else which has not the property of lowering
cholesterol.
We thus find an explanation for the differing amounts of coronary disease
throughout the world. In Norway during the German occupation coronary
disease fell because the factories making margarine were bombed, so the
population had to live on more natural foods such as fish. Eskimos very rarely
suffer from coronary disease ; they live on the seals, fish and other marine
animals which contain high amounts of the essential fatty acids necessary for
cholesterol control. Fish is also a major factor in the diet of the Japanese who
have one of the lowest death rates from coronary heart disease in the world.
Coronary heart disease is not so prevalent in the Latin peoples who use a lot of
olive oil; nor in primitive peoples such as the natives of Africa and China who
eat maize, soya bean and sunflower seed oils. In western countries the consumption
of animal fats is increasing year by year, and so also is the consumption
of the saturated fatty acids in animal fats which increase the amount of
cholesterol. Also the opportunity for eating the essential or unsaturated
fatty acids is lessened by reason of the hardening during processing of the
natural vegetable oils into margarine.
A Dietary Deficiency.
It thus appears that atherosclerosis in which deposits are formed on the
inner lining of the arteries and which contribute to coronary narrowing and
thrombosis is caused by deficiencies in our diet. These deficiencies are the essential
fatty acids such as linoleic acid which with vitamin B.6. control the
formation of atherosclerosis in the arteries3. Not only are the natural essential
fatty acids lost in the process of manufacture of margarine, but also in the
manufacture of flour; the more and more the extraction proceeds to make
pure white flour the more deprived of the essential fatty acids is the result. The
essential fatty acids occur in the wheat germ oil and this is practically all
removed in the manufacture of white flour. The addition of "improvers"
also tends to destroy the small remaining amounts of unsaturated fatty acids.
Similarly the vitamin B.6 is removed in the whitening process. Another vitamin,
vitamin E, which helps to prevent the conversion of the essential fatty acids is
also removed by the improvers. Men suffer far more commonly than women
by the deficiency. The deficiency encourages the deposition of cholesterol in
the arteries. Animals which have this deficiency are more sensitive to noxious
influences such as ultra-violet light, X-rays and cancer producing substances.
It is said that atherosclerosis of the aorta is common in people who die of cancer
of the lung. It is also possible that the deficiency in essential fatty acids causes
a weakness in the skin which results in eczema. Other diseases of highly
civilised communities are disseminated sclerosis, duodenal ulcer and a tendency
to rapid clotting of the blood which would aid coronary thrombosis.
The lesson we can all learn from this is to be wary of a diet high in animal
fats such as fat beef, fat bacon, fat pork, butter, cream and dripping. There
should be available for us a margarine without the hardened fats and which
contain more of the essential fatty acids. We need a flour composed as near as
6