DIET, BLOOD LIPIDS AND HEALTH OF ITALIAN MEN IN BOSTON

Abstract

One-hundred-eighty- nine healthy men, aged 20 to 50, whose parents had been born near Naples but who themselves had lived all their adult lives in the United States, had a mean serum total cholesterol level and dietary fat intake similar to that of other Americans, and significantly higher than that of native Neapolitans. Their likelihood of developing coronary heart disease was assessed indirectly by comparing the frequency of arteriosclerotic heart disease among male patients, aged 40 to 70 years, hospitalized in Boston and Naples, with a rate of 18% for the Boston City Hospital and 3% in Neapolitan hospitals. Internal comparison of the Boston group revealed no significant differences in the mean blood lipid levels of subgroups when segregated according to differences in per cent of dietary calories from fat, from unsaturated fatty acids, from "essential" fatty acids or from animal protein. The range of intake of these nutrients did not vary greatly among this group, so that failure to find positive correlations does not prove that such correlations would not exist when comparing groups with greater contrast in dietary patterns. When the group was segregated according to ranges of age, relative body weight, cigarette smoking, blood pressure, ecg findings and family history of cardiovascular-renal disease or diabetes appreciable differences in mean blood lipid levels were found.