Abstract
In order to examine critically the reason why so many deaths by cerebrovascular lesions occur among Japanese, correlation coefficients between mortality from cerebrovascular lesions as well as from arteriosclerotic and degenerative heart disease on the one hand and national average supply, on the other, of 10 groups of foodstuff were computed in 20 western countries. Vital statistic data in those countries were taken from the reports of WHO. Significant correlations were found between the death rate by cerebrovascular lesions and the national average supply of cereals (positive), and of fats and oils (negative). Those nations which consumed more cereals, less fats and oils, less milk, and less potatoes and other starchy roots seemed to show more deaths from cerebrovascular lesions.
In the U.S.A., where Negroes followed Japanese in the mortality from cerebrovascular lesions, the death rate was highly distributed in the southern states. Common nutritional deficiency was found among inhabitants in the southern states of the U.S.A. and in Japan. Besides vitamin deficiency, Ca-deficiency which prevailed not only in finished water but also in food, was suspected as a cause of high occurence of cerebrovascular lesions in both populations.
