flawed—that led to the hypothesis that fat causes heart disease.
In the 1960s, Yudkin did a series of animal experiments in which he fed sugar and starch to a variety of critters, including chickens, rabbits, pigs, and college students. Invariably he found that the levels of triglycerides in all these subjects were raised. (Remember, high triglycerides are a major risk factor for heart disease.) In Yudkin’s experiments, sugar also raised insulin, linking sugar to type 2 diabetes, which, as you now know, is intimately related to heart disease as well. 12
Yudkin was one of the many who pointed out that statistics for heart disease and fat consumption existed for many more countries than those referred to by Keys, and that these other figures didn’t fit into the “more fat, more heart disease” relationship that was evident when only the seven selected countrieswere considered. He pointed out that there was a better and truer relationship between
sugar consumption
and heart disease, and he said that “there is a sizable minority—of which I am one—that believes that coronary disease is
not
largely due to fat in the diet.” (Three decades later, Dr. George Mann, an associate director of the Framingham Heart Study, arrived at the same conclusion and assembled a distinguished group of scientists and doctors to study the evidence that fat and cholesterol cause heart disease, a concept he later called “the greatest health scam of the century.” 13 )
In the same year that Atkins published the first edition of his book, an English doctor named John Yudkin was making waves by politely and reasonably suggesting to the medical establishment that perhaps its emperor, while indeed cholesterol-free and low-fat, was nonetheless naked as a jaybird.
Around the same time, the brilliant Danish scholar Uffe Ravnskov, M.D., Ph.D., reanalyzed the original Keys data and came to an identical conclusion. His exemplary scholarship is supported by hundreds of referenced citations and studies from prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals and can be found in his book,
The Cholesterol Myths
, or on his website ( www.ravnskov.nu/cholesterol.htm ).
Though Yudkin did not write a low-carb diet book per se, he was one of the most influential voices of the time to put forth the position that sugar was responsible for far more health problems than fat was. His book called attention to countries in which the correlation between heart disease and sugar intake was far more striking than the correlation between heart disease and
fat
. And he pointed to a number of studies—most dramatically of the Masai in Kenya and Tanzania—in which people consumed copious amounts of milk and fat and yet had virtually no heart disease. Interestingly, these people also consumed almost no sugar. 14
The Sweetening of America
To be clear, Yudkin never said that sugar
causes
the diseases of modern civilization, just that a case could easily be made that it deserved attention and study, certainly as much as, if not more than, fat consumption.Heart disease is associated with a number of indicators, including fat consumption, being overweight, cigarette smoking, a sedentary lifestyle, television viewing, and a high intake of sugar. (Yudkin himself did several interesting studies on sugar consumption and coronary heart disease. In one he found that the median sugar intake of a group of coronary patients was 147 g, twice as much as it was in two different groups of control subjects that didn’t have coronary disease; these groups consumed only 67 g and 74 g, respectively. 15 )
“Many of the key observations cited to argue that dietary fat caused heart disease actually support the sugar theory as well,” Taubes wrote. “During the Korean War, pathologists doing autopsies on American soldiers killed in battle noticed that many had significant plaques in their arteries, even those who were still teenagers, while the Koreans killed in battle did not. The
In the 1960s, Yudkin did a series of animal experiments in which he fed sugar and starch to a variety of critters, including chickens, rabbits, pigs, and college students. Invariably he found that the levels of triglycerides in all these subjects were raised. (Remember, high triglycerides are a major risk factor for heart disease.) In Yudkin’s experiments, sugar also raised insulin, linking sugar to type 2 diabetes, which, as you now know, is intimately related to heart disease as well. 12
Yudkin was one of the many who pointed out that statistics for heart disease and fat consumption existed for many more countries than those referred to by Keys, and that these other figures didn’t fit into the “more fat, more heart disease” relationship that was evident when only the seven selected countrieswere considered. He pointed out that there was a better and truer relationship between
sugar consumption
and heart disease, and he said that “there is a sizable minority—of which I am one—that believes that coronary disease is
not
largely due to fat in the diet.” (Three decades later, Dr. George Mann, an associate director of the Framingham Heart Study, arrived at the same conclusion and assembled a distinguished group of scientists and doctors to study the evidence that fat and cholesterol cause heart disease, a concept he later called “the greatest health scam of the century.” 13 )
In the same year that Atkins published the first edition of his book, an English doctor named John Yudkin was making waves by politely and reasonably suggesting to the medical establishment that perhaps its emperor, while indeed cholesterol-free and low-fat, was nonetheless naked as a jaybird.
Around the same time, the brilliant Danish scholar Uffe Ravnskov, M.D., Ph.D., reanalyzed the original Keys data and came to an identical conclusion. His exemplary scholarship is supported by hundreds of referenced citations and studies from prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals and can be found in his book,
The Cholesterol Myths
, or on his website ( www.ravnskov.nu/cholesterol.htm ).
Though Yudkin did not write a low-carb diet book per se, he was one of the most influential voices of the time to put forth the position that sugar was responsible for far more health problems than fat was. His book called attention to countries in which the correlation between heart disease and sugar intake was far more striking than the correlation between heart disease and
fat
. And he pointed to a number of studies—most dramatically of the Masai in Kenya and Tanzania—in which people consumed copious amounts of milk and fat and yet had virtually no heart disease. Interestingly, these people also consumed almost no sugar. 14
The Sweetening of America
To be clear, Yudkin never said that sugar
causes
the diseases of modern civilization, just that a case could easily be made that it deserved attention and study, certainly as much as, if not more than, fat consumption.Heart disease is associated with a number of indicators, including fat consumption, being overweight, cigarette smoking, a sedentary lifestyle, television viewing, and a high intake of sugar. (Yudkin himself did several interesting studies on sugar consumption and coronary heart disease. In one he found that the median sugar intake of a group of coronary patients was 147 g, twice as much as it was in two different groups of control subjects that didn’t have coronary disease; these groups consumed only 67 g and 74 g, respectively. 15 )
“Many of the key observations cited to argue that dietary fat caused heart disease actually support the sugar theory as well,” Taubes wrote. “During the Korean War, pathologists doing autopsies on American soldiers killed in battle noticed that many had significant plaques in their arteries, even those who were still teenagers, while the Koreans killed in battle did not. The
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