Totally contrary to what doctors have been advising all of us for decades, new scientific studies have revealed that low cholesterol may not be good for health. 

In its April 12, 2016 report, esteemed American television CNN had stated: “Diets rich in vegetable oils and low in saturated fat might not be all they are cracked up to be in terms of heart health, according to new research. Just about every diet recommends reducing saturated fats, such as butter and cheese, and replacing them with unsaturated fats, such as vegetable oil and fatty fish. The 2015 dietary guidelines advise limiting saturated fats to no more than 10 per cent of daily calories.”

The US channel had added: “There have been only a few studies comparing these two types of fat head-to-head between groups of people eating otherwise similar diets. In the new study, researchers revisited data from a trial carried out from 1968 to 1973 that involved more than 9,000 adults living in a nursing home or mental hospitals in Minnesota. About half the participants received diets that contained 18.5 per cent saturated fat and 5 per cent unsaturated fat, based on total calories, and the other half got diets that were 9 per cent saturated fat and 13 per cent unsaturated fat. In the unsaturated fat diet, the researchers increased the level of linolenic acid, an omega-6 polyunsaturated fat, found in margarine and oils such as corn and soybean. Researchers found, not surprisingly, that the group that got the diet rich in linolenic acid had lower cholesterol, by about 13 per cent, than the saturated fat diet group. For this analysis, the researchers only included the 2,403 participants who were on one of the two diets for at least a year.”

Earlier in 2015, United States officials had finally given the green light for a U-turn on previous warnings on cholesterol, which had been on the “naughty” list of nutrients for nearly 40 years. 

In its May 25, 2015 edition, the “Mail Online” had written: “For decades they have been blacklisted as foods to avoid, the cause of deadly thickening of the arteries, heart disease and strokes. But the science which warned us off eating eggs – along with other high-cholesterol foods such as butter, shellfish and liver – could have been flawed, a key report in the US has found. Foods high in cholesterol have been branded a danger to human health since the 1970s – a warning that has long divided the medical establishment.”

The prestigious British media outlet had asserted: “A growing number of experts have been arguing there is no link between high cholesterol in food and dangerous levels of the fatty substance in the blood. Now, in a move signalling a dramatic change of stance on the issue, the US government is to accept advice to drop cholesterol from its list of 'nutrients of concern.’ The US Department of Agriculture panel, which has been given the task of overhauling the guidelines every five years, has indicated it will bow to new research undermining the role dietary cholesterol plays in people's heart health. Its Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee plans to no longer warn people to avoid eggs, shellfish and other cholesterol-laden foods.”

The “Mail Online” had maintained: “The U-turn, based on a report by the committee, will undo almost 40 years of public health warnings about eating food laden with cholesterol. US cardiologist Dr Steven Nissen, of the Cleveland Clinic, said: 'It's the right decision.

We got the dietary guidelines wrong. They've been wrong for decades.' Doctors are now shifting away from warnings about cholesterol and saturated fat and focusing concern on sugar as the biggest dietary threat.”