Have you seen the reversal in the USA of the welcome warning about ‘cholesterol laden foods’ (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/02/10/feds-poised-to-withdraw-longstanding-warnings-about-dietary-cholesterol/)?
The cholesterol myth rose on the flimsiest of foundations from the Framingham studies. Although given no publicity the one definitive finding, which ran against the underlying motivation of the studies, in Framing was that consuming saturated fat/cholesterol rich foods had no correlation to cholesterol levels in the body. Sadly the new guideline, whilst belatedly exonerating cholesterol rich foods from any health risk, still perpetuates the false beliefs that saturated fat is bad and causes cholesterol and that cholesterol is bad, when it is an essential part of our well being. It is oxidization of cholesterol in the arteries that is the true evil. There are many causes, such as sugar, trans fats, processed carbohydrates, but saturated fat is not implicated. What is more, insofar as saturated fat can be associated with cholesterol in the body, it is associated with type A particles in LDL, whereas type B particles most associated with being oxidized.
Also, most encouraging is the recent study (published BMJ’s Open Heart journal by the University of the West of Scotland - Zoë Harcombe et al), which concludes that dietary guidelines adopted by British authorities in the early 1980s and still in use today are based on “very limited evidence”. The study states, “It seems incomprehensible that dietary advice was introduced for 220 million Americans and 56 million UK citizens given the contrary results from a small number of unhealthy men” and “Dietary advice does not merely need a review; it should not have been introduced.” Again this is not the opening of the flood gates, because the newspapers, having reported this study then treated their readers to extensive advice against saturated fat, cholesterol and the study itself by saturated fat-heads, who still cling to the cholesterol myth.
The dam is beginning to show the first signs of bursting, but I do not think the war will be over by Christmas. The key to good health is, of course, anti-oxidant supplementation.