On Wed, 30 May 2001, Charles Alban wrote:

> It looks pretty obvious to me that they don't mean anything in themselves,
> and trying to treat this alone is the wrong approach. See my other post on
> Sally Fallon's contention that the original data on which this thesis was
> based, that is that high cholesterol levels are strongly correlated with
> coronary mortality, was manipulated, and the correlation in fact does not
> exist. It does seem to exist at low cholesterol levels, however.

I think it is fair to say that a strong correlation does not
exist.  There may be a weak correlation, however, that is marking
the small-dense LDL effect.  If so, that is worth knowing about.

> Since these conditions, that is heart disease, etc., do not exist in
> traditional societies, (and sometimes I believe they do have high cholesterol
> levels), then the best approach surely must be to try to emulate these
> societies as closely as possible. And if this means totally organic produce
> and raw milk products, then so be it.

I recall reading (I think it was Eaton, but I'm not sure) that
when they have been measured, cholesterol levels among
contemporary hunter-gatherers tend to be quite low.  There may be
HG groups with high cholesterol too, but I haven't heard of any
yet.

Todd Moody
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