How's Your

Cholesterol Level?

Eat, drink and be merry—but let’s see if we can do it without

dying tomorrow.

THAT —more or less—is how H. M.

Whyte, research director, Sydney Hospital, begins his little book, The Fats of Life. It’s a concise guide to the theory and practice of eating and

king to avoid coronary heart ase; it’s complete with a section ■ecipes; when you remove the dust :et the reverse side is a diet chart, ket size, should you want to carry /hen eating out; and, finally, the :eeds of the book go to the ional Heart Foundation. more could you want? No g, except a mind of your own. seem to remember reviewing, a ffe of years ago, a book called Fat and Grow Slim (but we tion this only in passing), atistics tell us that Australians ; a bigger chance of dying of a ise of the coronary arteries than iny other cause; that all diseases te circulatory system account for death in two of the population as lole. le relationship between food, eating, overweight and heart ise has been long recognised. Not jng recognised has been the sig ance of the quality of food con id—the kind of food that pro s fatty deposits (cholesterol), on vails of arteries, fouling them up a corroded water-pipe, and en aging the formation of blood New Guineans Are OK sceptibility to coronary attacks is tly related to cholesterol levels. )u are a South African Bantu or lew Guinea Chimbu, with a isterol level of about 150, the ces of your having a coronary k are slim. If, however, you are e other end of the scale, like a of Americans, Australians and Zealanders, with a level of 250, may be venturing into dangerous try. ke a lot of others in the medical :ssion, the author still wants to a bit both ways. It is not ite, he says, that cholesterol it :auses heart disease. It’s rather smoking in relation to lung :r —the evidence is suggestive ?h to make some “sane ;ists” believe that it is worth do omething about it. lat can you do about it? Firstly, get fat—eat less. And secondly, less fat—and especially foods :d in dripping, lard, margarine or "• Cut the fat off your meat, ;he cream out of your milk; help elf sparingly to butter, gravy, s, chocolate and cake. in at that, there’s no guarantee you’ll end up like a sylph, but -ecipes in the book all help ds that desirable end without ig life completely intolerable.

E FATS OP LIFE. Published by toith Pty. Ltd. 15/-.)