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Loften Islands Norway
Also unique, they needed the fat of seals to burn their candles during the long winters for light,
warmth and cooking. It is only in the last 20 years, that modern man has been able to get
control of this formerly beneficial adaptation by developing statins to lower our cholesterol
and triglyceride levels and prevent or reduce the risk of coronary artery disease. Some have
argued that this risk of coronary artery disease can be controlled by just switching to plant
based vegetarian diet but this ignores some important facts about coronary artery disease.
Coronary artery disease, as many heart surgeons can tell you, is particularly severe in vegans
and vegetarians, particularly so in the Indian subcontinent peoples. Furthermore, coronary
artery disease is extremely rare in Bushmen and the Nguni Bantu populations of Southern
Africa, despite their high intake of meat, and in the latter also of milk, as one of my teachers,
Professor Harry Seftel showed in a number of medical manuscripts. It is only with modern
processed high fat content and refined carbohydrate sweet western foods that coronary artery
disease and diabetes has begun to occur among Southern African indigenous blacks. As a
junior resident in cardiology in 1979, there was quite an interesting stir among cardiologists
when Prof Seftel had admitted to his service for the first time, an African with a heart attack.
The story had a twist of irony since he was the chauffeur for Helen Suzman, the well-known
anti-apartheid Member of Parliament from Houghton in Johannesburg and a constant thorn in
gluteus maximus (“butt”) for the Afrikaner Nationalist government. He had of course been
served a western diet for years as to not discriminate against him, and he had developed
coronary artery disease. Are Bushmen then somehow immune to developing coronary artery
disease? Probably not, but it may have something to do with the fact that the wildlife venison
they eat is much leaner than beef meat, their salt intake is lower (only at most 2g per day)
whereas Americans take in 3.371 grams on average per day, 80% from processed food. The
American Heart Association and U.S. Department of Agriculture recommend 2.3grams. They
also exercise much more, run lower cholesterol levels, and do not eat sugar except honey—
although smoking is a great pleasure. In fact, early traders and hunters in the interior used
pieces of cut tobacco as coinage to trade with the interior Bushmen and Nguni tribesman. For
example, a one inch slice may have purchased some minor goods, six inches a larger item. As
a result, early Nguni jewelry catered to this obsession, as is still the case today with some 50
million smokers in the USA, by making jewelry for carrying the tobacco, including in the hair.
A $15 dollar packet of cigarettes may seem to be expensive now, but it always has been highly
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