Over 50 years ago, my father, who had a Ph.D. in swine nutrition, stated that dietary cholesterol had no effect on serum cholesterol ("your body creates cholesterol on its own," he would say). Now eating cholesterol-laden foods may in fact affect the overall health of the consumer, but there are just too many variables to draw a simple conclusion.

Much of our information about diet is not only misinformation, but politically / economically influenced. In 1977. the McGovern senate committee on dietary health was poised to recommend a diet higher in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and lower in fatty meats and dairy (fairly standard advice today), but pressure from the beef industry led to a watering down of these recommendations (McGovern himself was from a cattle-growing state and went along with the revision). Who knows to what extent the wellness and longevity of millions of Americans were affected by such manipulation?