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Edward Siguel, MD, PhD
Nutrek Inc Brookline, Mass

Blair R. MacBeath, MD
East Texas Medical Center Pittsburgh, Tex

Robert H. Lerman, MD, PhD
Evans Medical Foundation Boston, Mass

JAMA. 1996;275(18):1402.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—News media across the country reported the findings by Dr Gould and colleagues¹ that very low-fat diets can lead to regression of coronary artery disease. Although their results are encouraging, we urge caution in treating patients with such diets. Schaefer et al² have reported that low-fat diets without weight loss lead to a decline in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and increases in triglycerides and ratio of total cholesterol to HDL-C. We³ suggested that low essential fatty acids (EFAs) may be the cause, but no comment was included in the article by Gould et al¹ about the long-term effects of the diet on levels of EFAs or about the fact that the treatment may be harmful in certain patients. The following case illustrates the problem.

A 66-year-old man with a family history of premature death attributable to heart disease, a previous myocardial infarction, and . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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