[QUOTE=Voyajer]Thanks Deb,

I realize I forgot two points:

26. There is one fat that should be avoided: trans fat (partially hydrogenated oil). Replacement of just 2% of energy from trans unsaturated fats with unsaturated fats would result in a 53% risk reduction for coronary heart disease.
54 Felton CV et al: Dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids and composition of human aortic plaques. Lancet 1994; 344:1195-1196.
55 Nippon Rinsho, Modified low-density lipoprotein. 1994 Dec; 52(12):3090-5.
56 Bourre JM, Piciotti M. Alterations in eighteen-carbon saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acid peroxisomal oxidation in mouse brain during development and aging.

Impressive work Voyajer! However, you may have missed the key point in why LDL cholesterol has been indicted as the 'criminal' in CVD.

There are a series of dots between item 26 and items 54, 55 and 56. As the article in the Lancet pointed out, it is PUFAs (mainly trans fats and oxidized omega 6 which is the bad guy relative of the essential fatty version which is biologically active parent omega 6), not saturated fat that is clogging arteries. In fact the study found no saturated fat in clogs.

Insofar as LDL being the bad guy, it is merely an innocent bystander. LDL normally carries biologically active parent omega 6 because it is the transporter for it. But the majority of the omega 6 we get in our good old North American diet that has not been hydrogenated is oxidized and thus not only biologically inactive (read: doesn't function in the capacity of an EFA) but is also toxic. This is what LDL is transporting. Researchers concluded that LDL is the bad guy when in reality it is the bad omega 6 that the LDL is carrying. Lowering LDL will help to a degree. But LDL can never be lowered enough to eliminate all the oxidized omega 6 PUFA that is doing damage. Eliminating trans fats only deals with part of the problem. If there's not enough biologically active parent omega 6 to supply your body's needs (they don't call it 'essential' for nothing) it will use whatever it can get because it has no other choice.

It really stretches my imagination to the limit for me to believe that replacing trans fats with the same oxidized PUFAs that are clogging arteries will result in a 53% reduction for coronary heart disease.

I have just obtained a copy of a new article that revisits the LDL issue in the above perspective. Since it is not yet widely available I can provide a copy to anyone who provides me with their email address or I can post some excerpts in this forum along with science references of course.