The only sound that of a distant fall, the only light that of the stars above, the only life that of the dozen men here gathered together. But they too seem lifeless, still figures outlined against the blackness, themselves draped in the blackness of full-body robes. Suited, not in the armor of the flesh, but of the spirit - ready for battle, a battle of the spirit, both against themselves and the powers of hell - and this war knows no victory but heaven itself, no defeat but the eternal fires of the great pit.
[From The Divine Office by John "Arley" Arely Burns]
During the course of two days, 19 May 1998 to 20 May 1998 a heated debate raged between Rose A. Hoberman (roseh@cs.utexas.edu), Charles M. Lowell (cowboyd@fundsxpress.com), and Zane T. Rockenbough (zane@fundsxpress.com). The question was, "Can you get cholesterol from plants and is there cholesterol in plants?"
Now, as usually happens in the causal debates, the two sides got a little mixed up on what the question was. Rose Hoberman seems to have though the issue was, "Can you ingest cholesterol from plants?" and the Charles/Zane party, though at first debating this point, soon switched to the question, "Is there cholesterol in plants?"
Rose Hoberman called Zane Rockenbough later that night to tell him that she could support her claim through three books--Laurels Kitchen, The World Book and a third book unknown to this author. Zane told recounted this to Charles mid-afternoon on the 20th of May 1998 to which Charles said, "Dude, that's wrong," or something along those lines.
Caught in the middle, I (which is to say Michael R. Coté (cote@coteindustries.com")) was decided to research it and settle the issue before it escalated to full scale rioting and looting in the fair city of Austin Texas. Hence, I compiled this report and e-mailed it out on Wed May 20 15:43:48 -0500 1998. I included John "Arley" Arley Burns (aburns@fundsxpress.com) as a courtesy for letting me quote from his brief lecture.
From michael Wed May 20 15:43:48 -0500 1998 From: Cote' <cote@coteindustries.com> To: roseh@cs.utexas.edu CC: cowboyd@fundsxpress.com, zane@fundsxpress.com, aburns@fundsxpress.com Subject: The Great cholesterol Debate Reply-to: michael@fundsxpress.com
An excerpt From The Britannica On-Line Article on Cholesterol:
The chief means of avoiding high cholesterol levels in the blood is to lower one's dietary intake of cholesterol. Because cholesterol is present in animal fats (i.e., saturated or polysaturated fats) but not in fats obtained from plant sources (i.e., unsaturated or polyunsaturated fats), this can be done by: (1) reducing one's total intake of fats, (2) partly or wholly replacing one's consumption of saturated fats with that of unsaturated fats, and (3) reducing one's consumption of foods containing cholesterol.[1]
Now, this leaves another option open, "Well, it may not be in the fats, as the article says, but else where in the plant." Which leads to the question, "If cholesterol is found in other parts of the plant, is it ingested through the digestion of those parts?" The excerpt above seems to imply that there is *no* cholesterol ingested through plant eating, even though there may be cholesterol *in* plants. So, I kept looking...
A related link from the Britannica article lead to a page entitled, "Confused about cholesterol? Take Heart."[2] It contained some advice from Jean Snook, a nutritionist in the College of Human Ecology at The Ohio State University. Here's an excerpt that pertains to our query:
The first thing to do is to ignore all those "no cholesterol" labels splashed all over foods in the grocery store, Snook says. Only foods derived from an animal source would have cholesterol in them anyway. And even if a food is free of cholesterol, it may still contain a high amount of fat.
So, it seems that cholesterol can not be ingested from plant. Now, to the question--rather argument--that cowboyd@fundsxpress.com posits, i.e., that cholesterol is found in plant. Looking at the Britannica articles on steroids I find this small tid-bit: "Cholesterol, in addition to its role as a precursor of steroid hormones, is an important component of cell membrane." [3] To which aburns@fundsxpress.com adds, "Wait, plants have cell membranes." [4]
Now, if we take Mr. Burn's comment as valid, and couple it with the Britannica, it would seem that plants *do* have cholesterol. However, this as the other two excerpts point out, this cholesterol cannot be ingested by humans. Thus, when roseh@cs.utexas.edu posited, "You can't get cholesterol from Avocados!" (to which zane@fundsxpress.com and cowboyd@fundsxpress.com expressed the objection, "Yes you can") roseh@cs.utexas.edu was right. However, as the debate contuned in the Sun Harvest Parking lot and michael@fundsxpress.com's 1989 Cadillac Sedan de Ville, into "Plants do or do not have cholesterol." the cowboyd@fundsxpress.com side was correct.
Thus we have reached two conclusions to the two parts of the debate:
So, then, this researcher must ask, "Does that satisfy everyone?"
Minutes (at 20 May 1998 15:56:31 -0500) after the initial mail was sent out, cowboyd@fundsxpress.com replied:
I don't know if I can except Snook's testimony as precise enough for this discussion. As a nutritionist, she could be saying, "the amount of cholesterol you get from plants is negligible compared to that which you ingest from animals" but to make things simpler simply applied the more restrictive "no cholesterol" when talking about plants. Remember, nutritionists preach practical nutrition, designed around constructing diets with which people can live healthier lives, so such an exaggeration would be both reasonable and acceptable in her profession, whereas the same would be heretical to a biologist.
Thus, the issue still flourishes; the fires still burns; and the hatred still lingers.