Heart disease is the major cause of death in the United States (52% of deaths) and the leading cause of death for individuals between 35 and 44 who are in the care of the Massachusetts Department of Retardation. Nutritional scientists now tell us that the beginnings of heart disease are found in all children and adolescents who eat the typical American diet. To find out whether our change in menus did in fact improve the health of our students, we compared the students' total cholesterol (the key risk factor associated with heart disease) before and after the menu change. This was the total number of students who had been in our program for at least eight weeks after the menu change, and for whom we were able to obtain cholesterol data both before and after the menu change. Below are two charts which show the distribution of the students' total cholesterol values before and after the menu change.