American Jovrnal if Clinical Nt/ri/ion 206 Vol. 8, March-April 196() Editorial Diet and Atherosclerosis: Significance of Exceptions That Test the Rule

TILE enormous literature on diet and ath-erosclerosis pouring out in increasing vol-ume each year, there are two main refrains. One ignores nearly every factor but diet, and skips lightly over national statistics which do not fit on the curve relating coronary deaths to per capita ingestion of animal fat. The other emphasizes every factor except diet and con-cludes ‘ ‘ there is much more work to be done be-fore any conclusion can be drawn as to the relation of diet to arterial disease. ‘ ‘ Of course there is always more work to be done in clarify-ing any biologic problem, and it is obviously most desirable that much more information be obtained on species and individual responses t