EvelynS, Thanks so much for updating us...I thought it was all a bit fishy too. And yesterday I saw a couple of abstracts of articles re the Rotterdam study, both of which stated that the study showed NO connection between dietary fat and Alzheimer's.
It is disturbing that the article tht kicked off this thread came via Medscape, which is read by zillions of doctors.

Val

Read the actual studies. The differences they talk about are tiny, and barely measurable.

Without going into too much math here, most studies like this report the data as Relative Risk, or Odds Ratios. (Such as RR or 1.98 2.2.)

Note that in the most 'compelling' study, saturated fat intake showed a RR of 2.2.

By most standards, that's barely significant. In fact, MOST studies about diet and such show piddly RR's.

(A good primer on this RR business: http://www.junkscience.com/JSJ_Cour...docourse/14.htm)

Anyway, to quote from one of the studies cited:

"Intakes of total fat, animal fat, and dietary cholesterol were not associated with Alzheimer disease." Arch Neurol 2003 Feb;60(2):194-200~~~~(ISSN: 0003-9942) Morris MC; Evans DA; Bienias JL; Tangney CC; Bennett DA; Aggarwal N; Schneider J; Wilson RS


They've made a mountain out of a molehill, just to get headlines.

KWalt wrote:The real problem is that most people, including me sometimes, just read the headlines and don't bother to check their references, if they give any, to see what the real scoop is and most of them believe what they read too. I'm to the point where I have so little time, that instead of doing my own research, I read what people here, like you-all who did the research, have to say and take everything with a heavy dose of cynicism.