Coronary artery disease trends in Japan.

Japan has experienced great socioeconomic development together with industrialization, urbanization and motorization since 1945. This has resulted in dramatic changes in both the frequency of disease and the spectrum of diseases, as well as in a rapid increase in the elderly population. Changes in eating patterns during the past 40 to 50 years seem to be a major factor in this evolution. Departure from the traditional Japanese diet, which was very high in salt and low in fat and protein (currently the diet is 25% calories from fat, 60% from carbohydrate and 15% from protein and 12 gm salt/day), has been associated with a reduced incidence of stroke, but not with an increase in coronary heart disease mortality. Therefore, the current Japanese diet may be an optimal eating pattern for maintaining health. However, since the exposure to increased fat calories is recent, future trends must be carefully monitored.