Until 1930, heart disease caused no more than 10% of all deaths. In 1950, coronary heart disease was the major cause of mortality in the USA causing 30% of all deaths. Major blood vessels supplying the heart with oxygen and nutrients were blocked by a massive blood clot leading to death of cardiac muscle fibers. These kinds of incidents were responsible for about 3,000 deaths in 1930 and one of the first clinical descriptions of heart attacks date back to 1912. By 1950 these number were at least 500,000. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) facts, cardiovascular disease is at the moment the number one killer worldwide, claiming 17.1 million lives per year. This is a horrific change to begin with! What happened and we ended up here?
Of course it is not just diet responsible for this dramatic change. Of course, sanitary conditions have improved massively since the beginning of the century, which certainly helped in the elimination of pneumonia, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases. The most important factor though remains the massive change in our diet habits. The fats and oils used in the beginning of the century were butter and lard. By 1950 margarine consumption increased from 2 to 8 pounds while butter consumption dropped from 18 pounds per person per year to 10 pounds. Also processed vegetable oils became very popular that period (average annual consumption tripled per person), not just for household use but for industrial uses mainly. At the moment, vegetable oils are widely used in mass production i.e. desserts, biscuits,ready meals etc.
The problem with vegetable oils and margarine is the refinement process they go through during production. They are processed with toxic chemicals at high temperatures in order for the final product to have the ideal properties, colour and texture. A small percentage of these chemicals remain in the final product. The raw materials of these products are relatively healthy, but the industrial process they go through transforms them in toxic and dangerous products. The aggressive and misleading marketing that these products receive have caused a major health pandemic of cardiovascular diseases around the globe. They are some of the most unhealthy and dangerous products out there and it is a crime that they are marketed as healthy options. When butter and lard were habitually used cardiovascular diseases were basically unknown and extremely rare conditions. They became very well known indeed and a common theme when consumption of artificial oils skyrocketed as a result of the aggressive marketing they received.
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