PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND THE DIET IN POPULATIONS DIFFERING IN SERUM CHOLESTEROL 1

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Abstract
Data on total serum cholesterol are presented for samples of men, classified by age and physical activity, in Minnesota, Malmo, Sweden, Bologna, Naples, the island of Sardinia and 3 ethnic groups in Cape Province, South Africa. Data on the cholesterol in the beta lipoprotein fraction in the serum are presented for some of these groups. Differences in physical activity do not explain the large differences in serum cholesterol found when groups with different dietary habits are compared. Within some populations there is a tendency for men in heavy manual labor to have somewhat lower serum cholesterol values than the other men in the population. Among the Bantu, who show this tendency most prominently, it was found that the men in heavy work consume diets lower in fats than the other Bantu and there is other evidence pointing to a general tendency for the composition of the diet to be related similarly to the habitual level of physical activity. It is concluded that the habitual* diet, and especially its fat content, has much more influence than the physical activity, per se, on the concentration of total cholesterol and beta lipoprotein cholesterol in the blood serum.