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Ms Jones tells us how downing cholesterol-reducing Flora pro.activ drinks each day has helped her get her cholesterol levels down to a "much better figure." Pieces of this nature have long been used by companies to legitimise and add credibility to their products by blurring the lines between editorial and advertising - that's why they're called 'advertorials'.
The risk with advertorials is that they will promote the benefits of the product being pushed, and fail to mention some important failings. So, please allow me to fill in the blanks that Chris Jones appears to have left...
First of all, products like Flora pro.activ are sold to us on the basis of their cholesterol-reducing ability. My attitude to this is 'so what?' That's because the impact that a food or anything else has on cholesterol is irrelevant - it's the impact it has on health that counts.
So, here's what you need to know: taking dietary steps to reduce cholesterol simply hasn't been shown to have broad benefits for health. For example, cholesterol-reducing diets have not been shown to prevent deaths, even in those who are deemed to be at high risk of heart disease. This, quite frankly, is where our faith in cholesterol-reducing foods should come to a shuddering halt. Except, of course, if there exist financially motivated reasons for keeping the faith alive.
Here's another thing: while Chris Jones tells us her cholesterol levels came down to a better level, there is a distinct absence of detail here. What were her levels before and after? I suppose those interested for more detail and about the test results and perhaps put some counter evidence could contact Chris Jones.
However, there is no facility for comments at the end of the piece. No email address for Chris Jones either. So, I searched the Telegraph site for lists of its journalists and found this [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/]. Oddly, no one by the name of Chris Jones is listed. How about bloggers [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/blogs/]? No mention of a Chris Jones there either. And neither can I find other pieces written by her on the Telegraph website.
What we have here, it seems, is a biased and detail-free advertorial exalting the benefits of a cholesterol-reducing product with no proven health benefits written by someone who is untraceable. Like the evidence that taking dietary steps to reduce cholesterol benefits health, it looks like Chris Jones does not exist.
Two dozen eggs please ... hold the bacon
An elderly man with a mammoth appetite for eggs serves as an extreme example that some people can eat large amounts of cholesterol-laden foods without harming their health.
In the March 28 NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE, gastroenterologist Fred Kern Jr. of the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver describes an 88-year-old retirement-home resident who has consumed an average of 25 eggs daily for more than 15 years -- yet maintains normal levels of blood cholesterol. The man, diagnosed with a compulsive eating disorder, keeps a running tally of the two dozen soft-boiled eggs he methodically ingests throughout the day. He eats an otherwise normal diet and is of average weight.
Kern says the man's body has "extremely efficient compensatory mechanisms" that allow him to cope with the quantity of cholesterol he consumes. Not only do his intestines absorb only 18 percent of the cholesterol he ingests--50 to 60 percent is more normal -- but his liver also produces twice the normal level of the acids, breakdown products of cholesterol.
Margaret Flynn, a clinical dietician at the University of Missouri in Columbia, says the man's healthy cholesterol level is not surprising. "All of the studies we have done showed no effect [on blood cholesterol] of high egg consumption in a normal diet," she told SCIENCE NEWS.
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