On Thu, 15 Jul 2004 07:52:26 -0700, mark wilson <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

>> Low rate of CAD is visible among Japanese and
>> Chinese despite high rates of
>> smoking and hypertension.
>
>And pretty high carb consumption.  Any idea why they
>have such low rates of CAD?  Is there something about
>polished rice that makes is less lethal than other
>junk carbs?

What "pretty high carb consumption" are you referring to?

And the rates of CAD are far from the same in China and Japan - that
statement in the article is a vast oversimplification.

"Vegetarian India" is also an oversimplification, and in fact, the
whole idea of comparing different groups of millions of people has
little or no scientific basis.

For example, when I was in India, after a few days, we came down with
we thought were colds, but then after a week or two, we discovered
that we were actually reacting to the smoke from burning cow dung that
is widely used as fuel for cooking.   There are many such factors that
are not included in comparisons of large populations.

Small scale studies are much more scientific.   The journal
"Circulation" published one such study some years back, where the
participants were Finnish policemen, who are excellent subjects,
because they are trained to write down small details.   That long-term
study concluded that the factor most tied to coronary disease was
levels of insulin.


--
Cheers,

Ken