As appeared in the Globe and Mail, Thursday January 29, 2004
--Michael Kesterton
MKesterton~globeandmail.ca

Almost 50 years ago, Ancel Keys and his wife, Margaret, wrote a best-selling book called Eat Well and Stay Well. It promoted a low-fat Mediterraneau diet featuring olive oil, lots of fruits and vegetables, chicken and fish, and the occasional glass of wine, says the Mineapolis star Tribune. Prof Keys followed his diet for decades. This week, he turned 100 years old. Ever the skeptical scientist, Prof. Keys won't take credit for his longevity. "It can't helpt it", he said. "If you stay around long enough, it happens." Best known for his research into heart attacks and diet, he appeared on the cover of Times magazine in 1961 and was dubbed "Mr. Cholesterol" by the popular press. Prof Keys is digusted with the current American diet: "It's bad and getting worse". The Atkins Diet, he says is "rubbish" and many new diets seemed to be based on "supposition and imagination."

His studies have been shown to be biased (www.ravnskov.nu)
The mediterranean countries have many different diets, but generaly they are NOT low fat or low saturated fat. They almost alle include plenty of olive oil, cheese and fish.

Ancel Keys' incomplete data and wrong interpretation concerning fat and heart disease in world populations contributed to a myth that was picked up and disseminated by the food industry and is still causing trouble today. In recent reviews of decades of research around the world, a fair reading of all the data shows that the association between saturated fat and heart disease is, at worst, inconclusive.

I was thinking of the 122 year old woman in France, who apparently smoked and drank wine quite a bit, as the French have a tendency to do.
Perhaps we should all smoke and drink more!