Recommedations from the Advanced NATO Workshop

Abstract

In North America and Europe, one in four men have a heart attack or stroke before their age of retirement. In countries where awareness of the risk factors is present (e.g. the USA) and where intervention programmes have been in progress (e.g. in Norway and Finland) the trends in food consumption, the fall in mean blood cholesterol levels, and the downward movement in mortality from heart disease are consistent with the hypothesis of diet as a causative factor. In countries where there has been no action, mortality has risen or remained the same (e.g. the UK). Whilst this is an over-simplification of the present position, the evidence linking diet and heart disease is ample justi fication for recommendations on diet, to be persued.