Make Mine Scrambled

Fire up the hens, boys! Eggs won't kill you!

The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee has taken cholesterol off the list of things that are automatically bad for you if you are an otherwise healthy person. Cholesterol, like just about anything already in our bodies or in our food, can cause you problems if you have too much of it already or if you consume too much of it, but isn't necessarily the One Ring of Dietary Substances.

The interesting thing to me is that the guideline is one of incredibly long standing -- the Washington Post story points to concerns being raised as early as 1961. But in recent years, information has shown that not only is there a kind of cholesterol that the body needs in order to function well, it actually produces cholesterol itself. Plus, regulating cholesterol amounts can create other chemical imbalances that present their own problems. The science of cholesterol effects and management, which was considered by many to be settled in some way, instead progressed as continued experiments and research uncovered new information.

Science, properly considered, isn't ever really "settled," since it involves asking questions about what is known as well as what is unknown. Which gives great hope to those of us who love Twinkies and French fries.