For nearly forty years we have been told by scientists and the medical profession that we must avoid saturated animal fat in our diet because it contains cholesterol, a substance that may clog up the arteries and cause heart disease. As a result, most of us took to the so called 'healthy eating' advice, consuming a diet high in carbohydrates with polyunsaturated, plant based oils and their chemically solidified version, margarine. This was despite the fact that no actual scientific evidence exists to support the linking of dietary cholesterol and heart disease.

In fact, it has been established many times since this theory first started to circulate that cholesterol is a vital substance, so important that most cells in the body can actually make it. The body requires a lot of cholesterol each day for cell building and repair and the level of cholesterol in the blood is very accurately controlled in a healthy body. Even if you eat high cholesterol meals you will only consume about 20% of the body's daily need. If you eat more, the body makes less. If you eat less, the body makes more.

During this long phoney war on cholesterol, polyunsaturated fats were offered as healthy alternatives to butter despite the fact that the linoleic acid content at 40-70% is both detrimental to the immune system and cancer causing. When heated, these oils produce harmful free radicals. But so strong was the phobia against cholesterol that all these factors were ignored by the relevant health professions. In fact, those nutritionists, dietitians and doctors who were educated during the past thirty years - that is most who practice today - have all been misinformed about this cholesterol issue.

The war on saturated animal fat and its cholesterol content is now clearly seen as a phoney war.