I sent this last night but it hasn't shown up yet in my mailbox. (And I
can't even blame eGroups for this one.) Apologies if anyone gets this in
duplicate.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A few more comments:

on 1/11/2001 7:13 PM, Todd Moody at [log in to unmask] wrote:

> I was
> able to lose weight finally, although I've never reached a low
> body fat level, but only by a very restrictive regimen.

Sorry, I don't remember -- Todd, are you still on the Anchell diet?

> This is true, but you have to make your own judgment about how to
> think about cholesterol.  This diet's effect on cholesterol is
> unpredictable, and has never been studied.

Well, there are these two studies, although their study groups were
restricted to diabetics who do have a different blood chemistry from
non-diabetics. In these studies, though, a high-fat, low-carb diet *did*
improve cholesterol levels.

http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/10786a.htm

 I have personally
> decided to watch only the triglyceride:HDL ratio, which has
> improved.  All other ratios have worsened.  The TG:HDL view is
> still definitely a minority view, though.

In the last year or so, I have read dozens of journal articles on serum
cholesterol, its 'management' through diet, exercise and pharmaceutical
intervention, and its correlation with Coronary Artery Disease, heart
attack, stroke and death. (Someone should do a study on the effects of
8-point, set-solid type, in 2nd generation copies, on the eyesight of the
reader!) At this point, it's all still a game of statistics. Whichever
numbers you'd like to make important, you can find some kind of support in
the journals.

One number that stands out to me, is the highly significant number of people
who have their first heart attack with all of their cholesterol levels
falling in the 'desirable' range -- I think it's somewhere around 40%, but
I'd have to look it up. There are also a significant number of people who
have 'sudden death due to myocardial infarction' as their first, last and
only symptom of heart disease.

This is an issue where there is no clear-cut guide at this point. I don't
think I'd be comfortable completely ignoring cholesterol levels that were
off the charts (though I must admit, I've never had my cholesterol checked).
I have seen a lot of medical data that would support the TG:HDL ratio as
being more important than a simple Total Cholesterol or LDL count.

Irene