The cholesterol campaign should be revised by scientists without links to the food or drug industry

This post includes a summary of a paper published in the British Medical Journal 2008; 337:a1681 and a recipe for liver and onions.

Study title and author:
Hypercholesterolaemia: Should medical science ignore the past?
Uffe Ravnskov
Magle Stora Kyrkogata 9, 22350 Lund, Sweden

This paper can be accessed at: http://www.bmj.com/content/337/bmj.a1681.full?ijkey=rIAxXmCReGu9zU7&keytype=ref

Ravnskov notes:

No association between cholesterol and degree of atherosclerosis has been found in postmortem studies of unselected individuals

Books:

High cholesterol is not a risk factor for women, patients with renal failure, diabetic patients, or old people.

Old people with high cholesterol live longer than those with low cholesterol.

In cohorts of people with familial hypercholesterolaemia, cholesterol is not associated with the incidence or prevalence of cardiovascular disease, and their average life span is similar to other people’s.

No randomised, controlled, unifactorial, dietary, cholesterol lowering trial has ever succeeded in lowering coronary or total mortality.

No clinical or angiographic trial has found exposure-response between individual degree of cholesterol lowering and outcome.

More than 20 cohort studies found that patients with coronary heart disease ate the same amount of saturated fat as did healthy controls.

The concentration of short chain fatty acids in adipose tissue, the most reliable reflection of saturated fat intake, is similar or lower in patients with coronary heart disease compared with healthy individuals in five case-control studies

The effect of statin treatment is grossly overstated and is not due to cholesterol lowering. Only a small percentage gain benefit—and then only if they are men at high risk—and the benefit is easily outweighed by side effects that are more common and more serious than reported in the statin trials, if reported at all.

Ravnskov concludes: Revision of the cholesterol campaign by scientists without links to the food or drug industry seems urgent.

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Recipe of the day

Liver and onions

Ingredients:

•4 large slices pork or beef liver;

Food Mall: Beef Liver

•5 large onions, sliced;

•6 tbsp butter or lard;
•Salt and pepper to taste;

Preparation:
1.Heat a large skillet over medium-low heat and add 5 tbsp of the butter and the sliced onions. Cook slowly, stirring often, for about 20 to 25 minutes, until the onions are really soft and caramelized.

2.Near the end of the cooking process of the onions, heat an other pan over a medium-high heat and cook the liver with the rest of the cooking fat, about 3 minutes on each side.

3.Serve the liver topped with the delicious and creamy cooked onions.

Liver and Onions