The origins of beliefs about cholesterol & heart disease – Diet and Health Today

In Summary

* This note examines two research questions with original references of the time:

i) How was any connection between cholesterol and heart disease first made?

ii) Does eating cholesterol raise blood cholesterol?

* This note traces the history and evolution of beliefs about cholesterol and heart disease from the first mention of arteriosclerosis in 1872, through the research of Russian pathologists in the early 1900s, to the work of Dr Ancel Keys in the 1950s.

* The hypothesis that cholesterol could be a factor in heart disease was first explored by Russian doctor-scientists at the turn of the last century. Their research had a fundamental flaw, which has influenced thinking on this topic since.

* The exploration into dietary cholesterol and blood cholesterol involved several experiments and studies of populations. These were led by Dr Keys and some of his peers. This note captures the definitive statements dating back to the 1950s that cholesterol in food has no impact on cholesterol in the blood. This is not widely known today.

* Experiments on human subjects, which involved high intakes of cholesterol, exonerated animal foods at the same time as exonerating cholesterol. I’ll explain how. This is even less well known.