MODIFY THE DIET AND PREVENT HEALTH
1 National Cancer Institute-NIH, Bethesda, MD
Fats in the diet are a risk factor in heart disease and are thought to be related to the genesis of certain cancers. In 1972 the Committee on Nutrition of the American Academy of Pediatrics warned against overzealous restriction of fats in diets of children as a means for reducing atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease later in life (Pediatrics 49:305-307, 1972). Now, under the nonspecific title "Chronic Non-Specific Diarrhea," a group at Massachusetts General Hospital described five children 13 to 25 months of age whose diets had been restricted in fats because of a family history of atherosclerotic disease or high triglyceride levels in a parent, among other reasons. The diarrhea cleared in all cases when dietary fat was raised to a normal level (4 gm/kg of body weight).




