> Date:    Thu, 15 Oct 1998 09:08:43 -0700
> From:    Ray Audette <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Stefansson's Cholesterol
>
> Loren Cordain Wrote:
> > Stefansson's lower protein
> > intake (20%energy) relative to aboriginal intakes may have contributed
> > to the hypercholesterolemia produced by his "civilized all meat diet".
>
> Actually it was probally the only vegetable allowed on this diet that
> contributed the most to the high cholesterol seen by Stefansson and to a
> much greater extent by Anderson.  While in Belvue both drank coffee
> prepared by Anderson in the traditional Scandinavian method - boiling!

The trouble with this hypothesis is that Andersen's cholesterol
returned to normal (200) two weeks after the conclusion of the
experiment [1].  Unless there is reason to suppose that he
suddenly gave up drinking coffee at this time (and unfiltered
coffee was the norm in 1928), something else must explain the
sudden drop in cholesterol.

Todd Moody
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[1] Tolstei, E. (1929) J. Biol Chem. 83: 753-758.
   "The effect of an exclusive meat diet on the chemical consituents of the
   blood"