Northern Europeans do have high cholesterol levels and Greenland Inuit had
higher total cholesterol (208) in 1978 than other HG peoples, though much of
it was good HDL. 

I can only speculate re: higher lactose tolerance levels in Swedes than
Anatolians and Middle Easterners. The Middle Easterners were the first to
convert from pastoralism to crop agriculture and the Anatolians may have
converted to crop agriculture before the Swedes as well. Crop agriculture is
not as suitable to Scandinavia, so pastoralism survived there much longer.
Therefore, dairy was likely a larger part of the "Swedish" diet for much
longer than it was for the Middle Easterners. Probably longer than anyone
except the Laplanders (Sami people), which correlates well with the Swedes'
high levels of lactose tolerance.


High cholesterol level (hypercholesterolaemia)
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/lifestyle/healthfitness/health_advice/netdoctor/arc
hive/000151.html

...

What cause high cholesterol levels?

Cholesterol levels can run in families. If the inherited cholesterol levels
are very high, this is called familial hypercholesterolaemia or familial
combined hyperlipidaemia (FCH) where the triglyceride levels are very high
as well. 

Levels can also be influenced by the part of the world you live in:
cholesterol levels in northern European countries are higher than in
southern Europe and much higher than in Asia.

It is known that the relationship to food is significant, but there is no
doubt that genes also play a part. High cholesterol is also seen in
connection with other diseases, such as reduced metabolism (due to thyroid
hormone problems, for example), kidney diseases, diabetes and alcohol abuse.

....

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paleolithic Eating Support List
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Theola
> Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2007 11:20 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Lactose, Cholesterol, Celiac
> 
> I belong to a genealogy-dna list.  There have been some interesting
> discussions on lactose tolerance/intolerance recently.  I thought I
> would
> post one of messages since it touches on a couple of issues that we
> discuss
> here.  I didn't know about the higher latitude/cholesterol connection.
> Have
> we discussed this and I've missed it?  I don't remember reading it in
> any of
> "our" books.  I have left off the poster's name since I'm posting
> without
> his explicit permission; however, the list is archived and fully
> searchable
> at rootsweb.com.
> 
> Theola
> 
> ***************************
> I think dairying arose with goats. There are lots of studies on the
> goat
> dna.
> 
> >From http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/goats/Goats-w.htm
> 
> "The goat, along with sheep, were among the earliest domesticated
> animals.
> Goat remains have been found at archaeological sites in western Asia,
> such
> as Jericho, Choga, Mami, Djeitun and Cayonu, which allows domestication
> of
> the goats to be dated at between 6000 and 7000 B.C.
> 
>  However, unlike sheep, their ancestry is fairly clear. The major
> contributor of modern goats is the Bezoar goat which is distributed
> from the
> mountains of Asia Minor across the Middle East to Sind.
> 
> Unlike sheep, goats easily revert to feral or wild condition given a
> chance.
> In fact, the only domestic species which will return to a wild state as
> rapidly as a goat is the domestic cat."
> 
> Interesting that the Swedes have the highest percent lactose tolerance
> when
> it was the Anatolians and Middle Easterners who had dairy animals way
> earlier. Why didn't the people who domesticated these creatures first
> have
> the higher tolerance? What is it about high latitude people that means
> they
> had high tolerance of lactose before they had goats etc.
> 
> High latitude Europeans have high cholesterol which is an advantage in
> low
> light levels as the higher cholesterol in skin is converted by sunlight
> to
> vitamin D. So maybe they really needed the extra fat for the low light
> levels and vitamin D. Which is all an advantage for the babies rather
> than
> the adults who get the cholesterol disadvantages.
> 
> Swedes have a lot of Coeliac disease compared even to Danes. Must be a
> link
> to dna I would say. So Swedes show intolerance of glutens/cereals.
> 
> So maybe the Swedes have a mutation that gives you lactose tolerance in
> adulthood but unrelated originally to dairying, maybe very late weaning
> originally an advantage to low light level latitude people, because get
> extra cholesterol and thus extra vitamin D.
> 
> A thought anway.