What to feed someone who recently had a heart attack

[ucbalumnus]

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/fats-full-story/#cholesterol has the following:

@Harvard School of Public Health

For most people, the amount of cholesterol eaten has only a modest impact on the amount of cholesterol circulating in the blood. (37) For some people, though, blood cholesterol levels rise and fall very strongly in relation to the amount of cholesterol eaten. For these “responders,” avoiding cholesterol-rich foods can have a substantial effect on blood cholesterol levels. Unfortunately, at this point there is no way other than by trial and error to identify responders from non-responders to dietary cholesterol.

The reference “37” is to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16340654?dopt=Citation . The abstract of that paper says:

@ML Fernandez

The lack of connection between heart disease and egg intake could partially be explained by the fact that dietary cholesterol increases the concentrations of both circulating LDL and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol in those individuals who experience an increase in plasma cholesterol following egg consumption (hyperresponders). It is also important to note that 70% of the population experiences a mild increase or no alterations in plasma cholesterol concentrations when challenged with high amounts of dietary cholesterol (hyporesponders).

I.e. most people’s blood cholesterol is not affect but only minimally affected, while some people do experience increases (although the risk of raised LDL may be countered by raised HDL as well). It does not look like a “one size fits all” type of situation.