My maternal grandmother was born in 1892; she died in 2000, just shy of her 108th birthday--my mother had passed a month before, at 79, after bypass surgery at 59 and after 20 years of low-fat diets and anti-cholesterol drugs: "My baby girl is dead, and I don't want to live any more" she cried at my mom's service. She passed in her sleep a month later.
Grandma ate bacon and eggs every morning--but with just one piece of thickly buttered white bread, because "That white food will make you fat." She drank strong black coffee pretty much 24/7. Other than breakfast, she ate mostly small, frequent servings of meat--red meat, didn't care for chicken or fish--along with greens served with butter and salt. She saved her bacon fat to add to the greens as they boiled.
My last employer before retirement was a private cardiology practice. Under pressure there, I tried a low fat diet and quickly gained 20 lbs. Screw this, I thought, and switched back to eating what I wanted--mostly salads, green veggies and, most of all, meat. I quickly lost the added weight. I confess I enjoyed their consternation as I plowed into steaks and chili and cheese in the break room and stayed trim, while they struggled with weight even with their low fat diets in hand
About 8 years later, I needed cardiac clearance prior to spine surgery. My employers ran me through the full gamut--stress test, echocardiogram, nuclear stress test, etc. They gave me many sad and solemn looks during testing, as if to say, we all know this can't be good.
When the testing was complete, I joined the physician studying the various images in the "reading room".
He looked at me, he looked at the screen, he looked at me and said, "You don't deserve this heart." I though, bullshit, you need better data.
I still eat as I did then. My blood pressure hovers around 110/60; my resting pulse around 60, even though my physical activity is now severely limited. My cholesterol levels are, as they have always been--and as my grandma's were--fairly high.
DISCLAIMER: I'm not recommending anything to anyone: I don't want the responsibility.
"If you can keep your head while those around you are losing theirs, you can collect a lot of heads."