Can Herbivores develop atherosclerosis by eating cholesterol

[chimp]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1849886/

Atherosclerosis is easily produced in nonhuman herbivores (e.g., rabbits, monkeys) by feeding them a high-cholesterol (e.g., egg yokes) or high-saturated-fat (e.g., animal fat) diet. These studies initially were done by some Russian physiologists beginning nearly 100 years ago. And atherosclerosis was not produced in a minority of rabbits fed these diets. No, it was produced in 100% of the animals! Indeed, atherosclerosis is one of the easiest diseases to produce experimentally, but the experimental animal must be an herbivore. It is not possible to produce atherosclerosis in a carnivore, with one exception, and that is in carnivores who have hypothyroidism due to thyroidectomy. The only condition I can think of that is easier to produce experimentally than atherosclerosis is an endocrine deficiency. If the thyroid gland is removed, the consequence is hypothyroidism unless the thyroid hormone is replaced.

[ofonorow]