Diet, lipids and atherosclerosis.

During the Second World War there was a temporary reduction in the frequency of myocardial infarction in Finland, Norway and Sweden. This was probably due to the reduced consumption of saturated fat. The total amount of dietary fat and cholesterol presumably played only a minor role. Today it is easier to obtain reliable mortality figures and information about the fat composition of the food in a given country. A compilation of such data has shown that mortality from myocardial infarction is higher in countries with a high consumption of saturated fat. Polyunsaturated fats seem to have an opposite effect. There is no reason to dissuade people from using fat-modified food products with a lower fat content and replacement of part of the saturated fat by polyunsaturated. Refugees from countries where the diet contains very little fat should be warned against using too much of the high-fat food products widely consumed in their new countries.