Thanks Angeline, Montreal always has been my favourite city.

I think she got this part right - quote: "In a time when consistent nutrition information is scarce,..."

Looking back in Willett's book "Eat, Drink and Be Healthy," he states in bold type: " Cutting back on all types of fat and eating extra carbohydrates will do little to protect against heart disease and will ultimately harm some people." Then he says "Instead, replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats is a safe, proven and delicious way to cut the rates of heart disease." By unsaturated fats he seems to primarily mean mono-saturated (olive oil) and fish oils, however, he doesn't exclude corn or soyabean oil. Willet also says "High carbohydrate diets are especially bad for people who are (already) overweight," because of increased risk of heart attack.

He notes that saturated fat is correlated with high cholesterol, but doesn't say much else about it. Voyajer covered that risk pretty well in her excellent reference article. He seems to cite the Lyons (Mediterranean") Diet Heart Study as proof that unsaturated fats provide greater protection from heart disease and cancer than the diet proposed by the American Heart Association. However, I am sure Mary Enig ("Know Your fats") and the Weston Price Foundation would take some exception to any recommendation for vegetable oils.

I'd like to see more clarity here. Even the so-called Mediterranean diet can vary significantly. Does it include duck fat or not? Apparently not in Willett's version - but this overlooks both the so-called French and Spanish "pardoxes" i.e., heart disease declines with increased saturated fat consumption. The Greeks and the Japanese live the longest and smoke the most cigarettes. Maybe that's the answer.