The China Study by Thomas Campbell

BROKEN HEARTS 117

in Japan, who were more likely to smoke, still had less coronary heart
disease than the Japanese Americans.^19 The researchers pOinted to diet,
writing that blood cholesterol increased "with dietary intake of satu-
rated fat, animal protein and dietary cholesterol." On the flip side, blood
cholesterol "was negatively associated with complex carbohydrate in-
take .... "20 In simple terms, animal foods were linked to higher blood
cholesterol; plant foods were linked to lower blood cholesterol.
This research clearly implicated diet as one possible cause of heart
disease. Furthermore, the early results were painting a consistent pic-
ture: the more saturated fat and cholesterol (as indicators of animal food
consumption) people eat, the higher their risk for getting heart disease.
And as other cultures have come to eat more like us, they also have
seen their rates of heart disease skyrocket. In more recent times, several
countries have now come to have a higher death rate from heart disease
than America.

RESEARCH AHEAD OF ITS TIME

So now we know what heart disease is and what factors determine our
risk for it, but what do we do once the disease is upon us? When the
Framingham Heart Study was just beginning, there were already doc-
tors who were trying to figure out how to treat heart disease, rather
than just prevent it. In many ways, these investigators were ahead of
their time because their interventions, which were the most innovative,
successful treatment programs at the time, utilized the least advanced
technology available: the knife and fork.
These doctors noticed the ongoing research at the time and made
some common-sense connections. They realized that2l:

• excess fat and cholesterol consumption caused atherosclerosis (the
  hardening of the arteries and the accumulation of plaque) in ex-
  perimental animals


• eating cholesterol in food caused a rise in cholesterol in the blood


• high blood cholesterol might predict andlor cause heart disease


• most of the world's population didn't have heart disease, and these
  heart disease-free cultures had radically different dietary patterns,
  consuming less fat and cholesterol

So they decided to try to alter heart disease in their patients by having
them eat less fat and cholesterol.
One of the most progressive doctors was Dr. Lester Morrison of Los