Ancel Keys

Atherosclerosis: A Problem in Newer Public Health

1953

A lecture arguing that coronary heart disease should be treated as a public health problem tied to diet. Keys plots national dietary fat intake, as a share of calories, against heart disease death rates in middle-aged men for six countries and reports a rising curve. He proposes that dietary fat raises blood cholesterol and that cholesterol drives the arterial deposits behind heart attacks.

Seven Countries

1967

A report from the Seven Countries Study, which followed groups of middle-aged men in Finland, the Netherlands, Italy, Yugoslavia, Greece, Japan, and the United States. Diets were surveyed, blood cholesterol measured, and heart disease recorded over the following years. Keys compares the groups and reports that those eating more saturated fat had higher cholesterol and more coronary disease.