the last paragraph of chapter 1 begins "i hope that when you have read this book i shall have convinced you that sugar is really dangerous." the message was extremely unwelcome to the sugar industry and manufacturers of processed foods. these firms employed a number of methods to impede yudkin's work. the final chapter of "pure, white and deadly" lists several examples of attempts to interfere with the funding of his research and to prevent its publication. it also refers to the rancorous language and personal smears that ancel keys — the american epidemiologist who had proposed that saturated fat was the primary cause of heart disease — employed to dismiss the evidence that sugar was the true culprit. keys wrote, for example: