There is also a thread on this in media, http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=465462
but adding some news articles here in the cholesterol sub-forum about the upcoming change in cholestrol guidelines which will become part of the 2015 dietary guidelines.

http://www.latimes.com/science/scie...0219-story.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...ry-cholesterol/

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/20...e-side-of-bacon

Last night our Local PBS station took this new announcement as an opportunity to re-run a story they did on heart disease, cholesterol guidelines and fats, which featured Dr Eric Westman and a member of the local support group.
A good basic explanation of fats and heart disease, with some slides taken from the also good Catlyst show on heart disease and statins from Austraila.

http://video.unctv.org/video/2365428200/


http://youtu.be/sGIGXfIDaJo

From that Washington Post article:



Gotta love Ioannidis.

I just read "The World Turned Upside Down" by Richard Feinman of the Nutrition and Metabolism Society. He skewers nutrition research, explaining in detail all the ways in which it is wrong, bad design, bad statistics, bad interpretation of results, all leading to nutrition advice that kills people prematurely.

Also part of these recommendations (which may or may not even end up in the final version) is to move to a more plant-based diet, cut back on red meat, etc for environmental reasons. On what basis does the government make nutritional guidelines for the health of its citizens, based on one view of sustainability for the planet? Why are we mixing these two separate issues now?
Seems the media is focusing on the cholesterol flip-flop and not paying much attention to the other parts. Also the Saturated Fat guidelines have not been changed at all. Still very low and based on weak studies.

I try to remember that the nutritional guidelines are a political document not a scientific document. It has seemed to me that most people take at face value that eating a vegetarian or vegan diet is both better for the planet and better for their health. This is closer to religion, taken on faith, than science.