• Review of Uffe Ravnskov: "The Cholesterol Myths"
    (An excerpt from the foreword)

    by Michael Gurr, PhD
    Visiting Professor in Food Science & Technology, University of Reading, UK.
    Visiting Professor in Human Nutrition, Oxford Brookes University, UK.

    Whether diet plays a major role in heart disease is a question that interests us all. Author Ravnskov has a mission: To inform his readers that there is a side to this question other than the view usually presented to us..

    Governments and health authorities never tire of reminding those of us who live in industrialized countries that heart disease is a major cause of death. They go further and tell us that heart disease is eminently preventable. They insist that diet is foremost among those factors as a cause of heart disease. If only people would do what they are advised - reduce their intake of fats - then the high toll of death and disability from this disease could be readily reduced. If only!

    Dr. Ravnskov´s contention is that the diet-heart idea is a house built on sand. He leads us through the history of the concept in an interesting and readable way. His writing clearly demonstrates the enormous depth and range of his reading on this subject. Step by step he examines the evidence for the diet-heart idea, and step by step he shows us how that evidence may be flawed or contradicted by other research that is rarely acknowledged or quoted. 

    Medical science has generally been highly regarded by the public, who have rarely questioned its findings. It will come as a surprise to many readers to learn how many studies were poorly designed and conducted; how many did not produce the results that have been claimed for them and have been quoted irrelevantly or misleadingly; and how many published studies exist whose results seriously question or contradict the diet-heart idea but are never acknowledged or quoted. Some of these tactics are not only just misleading but also sometimes amount to scientific fraud.

    Many with establishment views will regard Dr. Ravnskov as a crank. That would be a grave mistake. He has done his homework, he is not a lone voice in the wilderness, and he deserves to be taken seriously. Above all, this book will make us all think more deeply about the true role of die tin heart disease and about the quality of the information that we receive.

    The book is available from www.newtrendspublishing.com

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