Control Over Nutrition Studies

It's very difficult to control nutrition for a large group of people, over a long period of time.

These test can never be "blind" tests because it's always clear what the special diet requires. So the group on the diet, always know they are supposed to be special, for the purpose of the study.

Even in hospitals, prisons, veterans hospitals and nurses homes, where meals are prepared in a central kitchen, while the diet served might be controlled, that's not the limit of what people eat. In addition, the group being fed is a moving target.

Ethical considerations prevent the use of strong controls.

Most studies completely ignore alcohol use.

Diet-heart Hypothesis Wrong.

Dr George V. Mann was at one stage the director of the Framingham Study and also conducted extensive studies of the Masai, whose diet is very high in saturated fat but who do not suffer from Cardiovascular Heart Disease at all.

His work led him to the conclusion that:
"The diet-heart hypothesis has been repeatedly shown to be wrong, and yet, for complicated reasons or pride, profit and prejudice, the hypothesis continues to be exploited by scientists, fund-raising enterprises, food companies and even governmental agencies. The public is being deceived by the greatest health scam of the century."

Norman Jolliffe and the Anti-Coronary Club

The date is 1957. President Eisenhower is having heart attacks. It's been demonstrated that eating vegetable oil rather than saturated fat reduces cholesterol. Norman Jolliffe enrolled 1100 men in the Anti-Coronary Club, and established a matching control group. From 1957 to 1962, the experiment seemed to be going well, and success was reported. By 1967 the results were negative and the experiment was closed.

Note: that as with President Eisenhower, there is no control over smoking for either group.

The diet

Reduce the amount of red meat. (Not more than three times a week.)

Eat more fish and poultry.

Reduce the consumption of eggs and dairy foods.

Drink two tablespoons of polyunsaturated vegetable oil a day.

This diet has about 30% more polyunsaturated fat than was usual at the time.

The Five Year Evaluation (1962)

Anti-Coronary Club members had lower total cholesterol.

Anti-Coronary Club members had lower blood pressure.

Anti-Coronary Club members had lost weight.

This was called a success; even though Norman Jolliffe, himself, already died of a heart attack in 1961.

The Ten Year Evaluation (1967)

Twenty-six members of the Anti-Coronary Club died by 1967.

Six members of the control group had died.

Control of Heart Attacks?

The Anti-Coronary Club was intended to prevent heart attacks.

Eight Anti-Coronary Club members died of heart attacks.

Zero members of the control group died of heart attacks. The Anti-Coronary Club was clearly not a success.