> Carol:
> I believe that the levels of vegetable oils that are best for humans
> can be easily ingested in the form of whole foods.  So many people are
> so frightened of saturated fat and cholesterol that they either go way
> overboard on the vegetable oils, or they try to cut out fat entirely.

I agree, but some people like, or are used to vegetable oils in their
salads. Just using cold-pressed oils _instead_ of hydrogenated oil is
already a healthful practice. Two tablespoons of olive oil contain as
much fat as one avocado, so there is no need to pour huge amounts on
your salad or to drink directly from the bottle :-)

The low death rate from CHD in France (so-called "French paradox"),
which is about twice lower than in the US or in North European
countries, is attributed to the consumption of red wine and of olive
oil (in fact, olive oil is consumed mostly in Southern France).

> Personally, I don't think the evidence that animal fats cause coronary
> heart disease is all that convincing.

There has been a debate on the Paleodiet listgroup
<http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/paleodiet.html>
between Loren Cordain and Sally Fallon and Mary Enig on whether
saturated fats cause CHD or not. Both parties finally agreed to
disagree. See also the page
"The Cholesterol Myths" <http://home2.swipnet.se/~w-25775/>.

AFAIK, other possible factors than saturated fat include:
 -low ratio omega 3/omega 6 fatty acids in the modern diet, due to the
  fact that modern animals are grain-fed instead of grass-fed,
 -transfatty acids,
 -refined carbohydrates (white bread, white sugar, morning
cereals...),
 -lack of exercise.

> If I had to choose right now, I'd say that it looks like sugar and
> homogenized milk are the biggest baddies.

What is the effect of homogenization on milk and why does it cause
CHD?

--Jean-Louis Tu <[log in to unmask]>