CHOLESTEROL! FACT OR FICTION?

Hey, it's Marco! If you're like most people, you honestly believe that keeping a low blood cholesterol level and avoiding fatty foods are the keys to escaping the deadly clutches of heart disease.
For years you've been watching your cholesterol levels like a hawk. You've been meticulously trimming the fat from your meats, drinking skim milk, and eating only the lowest fat foods you can find. Your doctor has even placed you on statins, those 'miracle' cholesterol-lowering drugs that allegedly slash your risk of heart disease by one-third!
Guess what? You've Been Duped! (Love that word btw...Thanks Mr. Krabs!) Remember when butter was bad for you and margarine was the substitute spread of choice? Or when eggs and cheese were perceived as killers? Bacon? Forget about it! All those foods were loaded with cholesterol..artery pluggin', heart-stoppin' cholesterol. It turns out that, for the most part, we were fed a crock of...butter, to be nice about it. To quote the Healthyself newsletter:

"First of all, there was never really any sudden epidemic of heart disease (in the 1960s) relating to consuming excessive fatty foods. This was because fat consumption had been declining before and during this period of time.
"Second, of all the clinical trials, only a very few showed any direct link between eating fat and cholesterol and heart disease deaths. The majority did not show any correlation or connection. And the one that did was so trivial, it demonstrated that having high cholesterol would only increase your chances of heart disease by a little over one-tenth of one percent (.13%).
"Then the so-called "'scientific cholesterol experts" altered the data and took that small percentage and turned it into a large risk factor, making it look a lot worse than it really was.
"Third, the National Cholesterol Education Program was designed to turn people away from fat and was based solely on one study (an anti-cholesterol drug study, not a diet study) that showed no evidence that consuming fats in any way caused an increase in heart related deaths.
"And fourth, the cholesterol drug study that is quoted by the AHA demonstrated that, best case scenario, if you have high cholesterol and take cholesterol drugs, your life expectancy will increase by only 18 days.
The Myth!