I think that part of the reason the saturated fat and cholesterol have gotten such a bad reputation with regard to heart healthy diets is because that was/is what was/is found in the arteries when doctors takes a look at those with heart disease. The reason...sat.fat and cholesterol are in there repairing the damage done by things like trans fat (which become rancid and toxic), free radicals, and the damage done when insulin spikes and plummets in the blood (due to simple carb/high carb/processed carb crap). Those things cause small lesions to form in the arteries and sat. fat and cholesterol go in to heal that. So the sat.fat and cholesterol that were found 'clogging' the arteries were actually masking the real problem and were instead used as a easy answer/scapegoat. High sat. fat and cholesterol in the arteries should tip the doctors off that there is something else going seriously wrong in the body that is making all the sat. fat and cholesterol flood into the blood system to do some serious work.

The info was from the book "Politically Incorrect Nutrition." I can't remember the author but it was an interesting read. This may not be exactly what the book said, but that was the gist. If you are interested in getting the info straight from the horse's mouth than pick up the book.