When I was a kid, EVERYTHING had either butter, cream or fat in it! My grandparents never had diabetes, heart disease or blood pressure problems and they didn't require glasses until their 50s. Daily walking was a very big deal. Everyday, into his late 80s, my grandfather had to go for his morning walk, and it wasn't a "stop and smell the roses" pace. He was a very fast walker! And my grandmother, when she went to the dentist, she refused Novocaine! She was also a serious walker. Parkinson's disease finally killed my grandmother. Both worked on ranches as youths, picking grapes. My sister and I lasted two seconds doing such work. It was exhausting. I know my grandfather's mother came from a fairly wealthy miller's family in Warenberg, but in the states she worked in the vineyards picking fruit and on the ranch doing chores. Hard exercise does reduce cholesterol build-up. Such foods were most likely needed for hard labor, production of hormones, etc. Just a theory, but research into Alzheimers has suggested that a sort of enzymatic plaque builds up in brain tissue, which interferes with nueron synapses and brain function. Food habits for many early GRs remained the same, but with more prosperity hard labor and excessive physical activity was reduced. I cook a lot of the ethnic GR food but only so often because when I eat it, it sits with me forever! It definately has "staying power" and even though I'm a regular at the gym, this "stating Power" can still be too much. I'm not saying this is the cause of Alzheimers, because I don't research Alzheimers, but its an observation. Carla Carla Wills-Brandon, Ph.D. www.carlawillsbrandon.com Death is just a bus stop before the next trip!