BAD CHOLESTEROL NOW WORSE

A new panel has said that 21 million Americans at high risk for heart attacks need to have even lower levels of "bad" cholesterol than they'd been previously told. The new goal is to get their LDL cholesterol below 70 milligrams per deciliter. The old goal was 100. The Chicago Sun Times notes that "Patients with high LDL cholesterol should exercise, lose weight if overweight and eat a low-saturated fat diet, said Dr. Sidney Smith of the University of North Carolina, a member of the guidelines panel. Saturated fat is found mostly in foods from animals. A heart healthy diet should include plenty of fiber from such sources as legumes, grains, fruits and vegetables." Although it fails to mention the clearest food link to cholesterol, namely cholesterol in food (it's only in animal products), at least this article mentions the rather obvious importance of diet - unlike the USA Today version, headlined Doctors now want your cholesterol even lower, but how? Gee, that's right, how? No mention whatsoever of diet, only drugs, which leads credence to the reports that this whole study was drug-company driven. (Aren't they all?)