“In Sri Lanka, coconut had been the primary source of dietary fat for thousands of years. In 1978 the per capita consumption of coconut was equivalent to 120 nuts/year. At that time the country had one of the lowest heart disease rates in the world. Only one out of every 100,000 deaths was attributed to heart disease, whereas in the United States of America, where very little coconut was eaten and people relied more on polyunsaturated oils, the heart disease death rate at the same time was at least 280 times higher. As a result of the ‘anti-saturated fat’ campaign coconut consumption in Sri Lanka has declined since 1978. By 1991 per capita consumption had dropped to 90 nuts/year and has continued to fall. In place of coconut oil the people begun to eat more corn oil and other polyunsaturated vegetable oils. As coconut consumption decreased, heart disease rates increased in Sri Lanka and interestingly, the problem was greater in the urban cities.”