Abstract
Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a major public health problem because a high proportion of its victims are middle-aged men: an apparently healthy man in his fifties can leave home for work in the morning and be dead an hour later, his wife a widow without support. Women, at least before the menopause, are less prone to the disease than men. It is estimated that about 1 in 5 men suffer a heart attack before the age of 65 and a high proportion of attacks are fatal. However, the average age of death from CHD is 74 years [1]. The individual is concerned about whether he will live longer and whether he will have less disability, not about what is written on his death certificate. As immortality is not an alternative, sudden death from CHD in the geriatric population has advantages over other causes of death such as stroke and cancer, which involve more suffering and an increased burden on society. The aim perhaps should be to defer rather than prevent CHD. Dietary fat has been implicated in the causation of CHD, and changes in fat intake have been recommended for the general population. This article critically reviews the available evidence.
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Sanders, T.A.B. (1988). Dietary Fat and Coronary Heart Disease. In: Dobbing, J. (eds) A Balanced Diet?. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-1652-3_6
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