Diet and atherogenesis

Diet is probably correlated with the prevalence of atherosclerosis in the more prosperous countries of the world. Attempts to discover the responsible items of diet would be facilitated if systematic, statistical comparisons were made between the diets in some high and low risk areas. A particular area which might lend itself for this survey is the block of five countries consisting of Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Romania. The first three of these constitute a high risk area, with mortality from ischemic heart disease of the order of 250 per year per 100,000 population, the last two a low risk area with mortality of the order of 75. Many relevant conditions, like standard of living, expectation of life, climate, etc. are reasonably similar in the five countries. Items of diet, the consumption of which is consistently higher in the high risk than in the low risk countries could constitute a short list of suspected atherogens.