I don’t think saturated fat is the whole story. Taking isolated groups and trying to apply it to all of mankind doesn’t usually work. It is just as likely they either have a genetic ability to process the saturated fat better or eat something else that drops it out of their blood. Also, note that they have no major grains, such as flour in their diets as is the case for many other small cultures with no heart disease.
I’m with you though. I clearly don’t think saturated fat is the bug a boo or even necessarily high cholesterol alone. I have personally known 10 women who were over 100 years old and all of them had what nutritionists would consider a high-saturated fat diet. What they didn’t consume usually (once they were in their 60s and 70s) was sugar. Sugar and saturated fat together may actually be the problem given that so many people who have heart disease also have blood sugar problems.

Unfortunately Larry L is correct the whole cholesterol diet-heart theory is false. Saturated fat and cholesterol is actually heart healthy along with a nutrient dense diet. It’s the sugar chronic high blood sugar: diabetes is a serious risk factor for capillary damage. A high-fat, low carbohydrate diet is your best defense against diabetes. If you have diabetes, follow the protocol posted at http://www.westonaprice.org/moderndiseas…
Commercial liquid vegetable oils which are full of free radicals can damage capillaries and smoking are the major risk factors for heart disease. Not cholesterol and saturated fat. There are many many studies to prove it. We’ve been lied to for the past 50 years.
The Statin Shuffle
While the pill-pushers continue to promote cholesterol-lowering with a vengeance, a recent article published in the American Heart Journal (2006:785-92) announced that clinicians are “under-prescribing” statin drugs, evidence accumulates that the little pill taken by 12 million Americans (a number the pharmaceutical industry would like to triple) may be bad news for a lot of people in a lot of ways. One recent study found that statin treatment caused a deterioration of blood sugar control in diabetics (Atheroscler Thromb 2006 Apr;13(2):95-100). Another reports that statin-induced cholesterol lowering causes muscular damage even when the patient has no symptoms of pain or weakness (J Pathol 2006 210(1):94-102). Another found elevated risk of lymphoid malignancy with statin use among Japanese patients (Cancer Sci 2006;97-102). Yet another presents evidence that statins interfere with selenium pathways (Lancet 363:892-94, 2004). Very low cholesterol is associated with poor survival in heart failure patients (American Journal of Cardiology, September 2006), a finding the study author called “counter intuitive.” Most serious is accumulating evidence that cholesterol lowering is bad for our brains. One new study indicates that a decline in total cholesterol levels precedes the diagnosis of dementia by at least fifteen years (Archives of Neurology 2007;64:103-107). Evidence that low levels of LDL-cholesterol are associated with Parkinson’s disease has become so strong that a team at the University of North Carolina is planning to explore the link with clinical trials involving thousands of subjects (Reuters, January 15, 2007). Cholesterol circulating in the bloodstream is unavailable to the brain-both LDL and HDL are too large to pass the blood-brain barrier, so cholesterol needed by the brain must be manufactured in the brain. Statins, however, do pass the barrier and enter the brain where they can interfere with cholesterol production and set the scene for cognitive decline.