Those studies involve a panoply of lifestyle changes including exercise, stress relief, cessation of smoking etc. I'll make this even easier on the both of you show me just ONE study documenting reversal of heart disease (by imaging not simply cholesterol markers) thru a vegan diet alone.
http://www.heartattackproof.com/resolving_cade.htm http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5215695644951404318# Caldwell Esselstyn, MD chief of surgery at the Cleveland Clinic, , took 18 heart patients who had failed conventional treatment and had been given up on and changed their diet to a plant based diet and every one of them recovered.
http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-carbs-20101220,0,5464425.story This is a core part of the zone diet, high blood insulin levels lead to disease causing fat levels.
Again. One study showing actual plaque reversal as a direct result of adopting a vegan diet that didn't also involve multiple interventions such as exercise, statins etc. The page you directed us to --heartattackproof-- is not a study, it's an oped piece. One clinical study.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15129302 ..from your link atticus..interesting..the brain runs on it,lack of or drop off is responsible for alzimers,sciatic nerve ,taste,hearing,aging
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3519928 Medium chain triglycerides (MCT) in aging and arteriosclerosis Some of the nutritional work with triglycerides consisting mainly of C8 and C10 fatty acids (MCT) lends itself to speculations about their influence on arteriosclerosis. Arteriosclerosis is thought to be part of the normal aging process which is due to age associated molecular biological changes. The lipid theory of arteriosclerosis is rejected. Pertinent studies with MCT include these observations. Feeding of MCT to rats resulted in animals of low body weight, small fat deposits and excellent survival rate. This deserves emphasis because of the beneficial influence of low body weight on aging and arteriosclerosis. MCT feeding was associated with low linoleate and low tocopherol requirements in rats. This may lead to reduced formation of those linoleate derived prostaglandins which favor thrombosis formation. Lower linoleate requirements may also lead to the presence of fewer uncontrolled free radicals in the cells. MCT feeding is associated with low levels of serum and liver cholesterol involving speculations that tissue conditions are such that an adaptive increase of cholesterol is unnecessary. The Demographic Yearbook of the United Nations (1978) reported that Sri Lanka has the lowest death rate from ischemic heart disease. Sri Lanka is the only of the countries giving reliable data where coconut oil (containing over 50% medium chain fatty acids) is the main dietary fat.
So Atticus, assuming the information you link to is applicable to the general population, it doesn't effect the general advise of the whole plant food doctors. They are all advising to eat only whole plant foods with no added fats of any kind. Dr. McDougall in particular is adamant about the dangers of free vegetable oils. All whole plant foods contain varying amounts of fat of all three types. Even fruits contain a small amount of saturated fat. What this data does is further invalidate the 40 year old advise to substitute various poly and mono fats for saturated fat as a strategy to reduce heart disease.
you have to differentiate between carbs. simple plant based carbs are good. refined carbs are bad. americans only eat 10% veggies and most of that is french fries.