The National Diet-Heart Feasibility Study, which was supported by the National Heart Institute, has been completed; the final report appears as a supplement to the March 1968 issue of Circulation.
There has been accumulating evidence for several decades that elevated serum cholesterol value is associated with an increased death rate from coronary heart disease, and that dietary alteration will change serum cholesterol levels. This largescale double-blind, two-year study is on the effects of diet on blood cholesterol levels in both free-living and closed populations.
Male subjects between 40 and 59 years of age ingesting foods low in saturated fat and relatively high in polyunsaturated oils, sustained a 14% reduction in coronary artery disease as compared with subjects on a control diet. Centers in Baltimore; Minneapolis-St. Paul; Oakland, Calif; Chicago; Boston, and Faribault, Minn, participated in the study. The problems inherent in a double-blind dietary study are reviewed in detail.
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