Just before the Ancel Keys experiments in 1953 showed that selected countries showed an association between fat, cholesterol, and heart degeneration, the idea of cholesterol being the primary cause was ridiculed:
“For the present the advocates of cholesterol go through verbal and mental gymnastics trying to show that their work has a bearing on atheroma, while the protagonists of thrombogenesis go through a reverse process minimizing the evidence which is going so far to take atheroma out of the limbo of degenerations[1]”
Yerushalmy in 1957 cleverly showed that Keys had used only countries that proved his case and showed with the same data (of the 22 countries) that the inverse association could be found with regards to deaths from vascular lesions affecting the central nervous system and concluded;
“it is concluded that the suggested association between national deaths rates from heart disease and percentage of fat in the diet available for consumption cannot at present time be accepted as valid”
The data also showed that there was a stronger association between animal protein and cardiovascular disease than for animal fats, for animal protein and fat, the association and non-cardiac death was negative[2].
At the time that Keys published his cholesterol data of 1492 Minnesota students, it was found that the mean cholesterol was low compared to Illinois and British students, Danish hospital employees, and factory workers. The mean cholesterol of those other studies showed a 15 points increase in cholesterol (age-adjusted) when one includes the standard deviation, one finds that what is now considered high, above 200 ml/dl, would fit nicely into normal when one looks at the studies outside from the Keys numbers.
Already in the 1950 scientists wondered whether keys students had characteristics that would provide lower levels of cholesterol, one scientist argued that the multitude of students of Scandanavian descent amongst Keys subjects skewed the results
When 100 patients were followed who consumed very high amounts of cholesterol and compared to a control group, it was found that there was no difference in outcome with regards to atherosclerosis and phrased it as “of doubtful significance unless there is an associated endocrinopathy”[3]. That same year it was observed that as we age our metabolic rate decreases and this decrease is associated with atherosclerosis[4]. It was shown that cholesterol could cause arteriosclerosis when given thyroid suppressors[5]. With all these studies, there was one man that would make a stand. That man was C.J.F. Böttcher. Böttcher was a chemist by training and one of the scientific experts in Europe.
One Man Tried To Warn You
A scientist by the name of Sinclair furthered Keys’s work and published in The Lancet in 1956 a hypothesis that the saturated fatty esters of cholesterol was the cause of atherosclerosis degeneration. Sinclair urged scientists to test this hypothesis, this challenge was taken up by the Dutch chemist C.J.F. Böttcher. To Böttcher’s surprise, the arterial plaques contained predominantly the unsaturated fatty acids, and the more advanced plaques showed to contain more linoleic and arachidonic acid.
In C.J.F. Böttcher memoirs, he comments on this news was not pleasantly received by the Dutch conglomerate Uniliver (who commercialized margarine), and when Böttcher went to the United States, he found that reason that he got a harsh treatment, was because the wealthy medical professionals had their fortunes invested in the newly founded seed oil fields. These fields were mostly sunflower and soy. In the end, Böttcher mentioned[6];
“wetenschappelijke objectiviteit wordt soms belemmerd door hebzucht”
“scientific objectivity sometimes gets impeded because of greed “.
Böttcher kept working on atherosclerosis and concluded that atherosclerosis is a disease of the arterial intima in its entirety, even in areas of apparent structural normality[7]. Böttcher found that the lowering of the metabolic rate could have been implicated with heart disease. These and other studies led the Learned Society of the Netherlands to the conclusion;
“Slechts staat vast, dat de cholesterolspiegel van het bloed een veel minder belangrijke rol in het geheel speelt dan men vroeger wel meende”[8]
“It is only certain that the cholesterol level of the blood plays a much less important role in the whole than was previously thought”
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[1] THE: PATHOGENESIS OF ATHEROMA * N. G. B. McLxIcmE, M.D. (From the Department of Pathology, Dalhousie Uxiversity, Halifax, Nova Scotia) 1951
[2] N Y State J Med. 1957 Jul 15;57(14):2343-54. Fat in the diet and mortality from heart disease; a methodologic note. YERUSHALMY J, HILLEBOE HE.
[3] THE NUTRITIONAL ROLE OF CHOLESTEROL IN HUMAN CORONARY ARTERIOSCLEROSIS* By CARL F. SHAFFER, M.D., Omaha, Nebraska. 1942
[4] Rosenkrantz, J. A., 1942: Arteriosclerosis and hypothyroidism Observations on their possible interrelationship. Jour Clin Endocrinol: 176-180
[5] Steiner, A. and Kendall, F. E. Atherosclerosis and arteriosclerosis in dogs following ingestion of cholesterol and thiouracil, Arch. Path. 42:433-44, 1946.
[6] Werken aan scheikunde, 24 memoires van hen die de Nederlandse Chemie deze eeuw groot hebben gemaakt Uitgegeven door Delftse Universitaire Pers in 1993. (Copyright 1993 by Delft University Pers). Own translation.
[7] Canad. Med. Ass. J.Oct. 29, 1966, THE IXth CONFERENCE OF THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF GEOGRAPHICAL PATHOLOGY
[8]NATUURKUNDIGE VOORDRACHTEN 1960 – 1961.NIEUWE REEK S No . 39 VOORDRACHTEN GEHOUDEN VOOR DE KONINKLIJKE MAATSCHAPPIJ DILIGENTIA TE S-GRAVENHAGE OPGERICHT 1793 BESCHERMVROUW H.M, DE KONINGIN