The paper itself is interesting. By in large the study consisted of people who already had high cholesterol (to the level their doctor would likely recommend putting them on a statin) and eat above the recommended level (from the american heart association) of saturated fat and a fair amount of dietary cholesterol.

They don't appear to say how they deal controlling for other factors that raise ones cholesterol.

Reading through the paper I find it hard to see signal among so much noise. And, it looks like the data shows the more people increased dietary cholesterol the more their cholesterol levels increased.

It makes me wonder how they draw their conclusions. Reading the paper and looking at their data doesn't give me confidence in their conclusions.

No papers to link. Anecdata of n=1.

My cholesterol levels were always very high. Even with statins. They helped but less than doctors wanted and they kept increasing even when increasing statin dose to the max. I craved lots of sugary stuff too. Cut out fat, didn't eat any eggs except what's hidden in the sugar stuff etc.

Then one year I decided to do Keto. Levels were still elevated but multiple points lower than before. Actual <20g carbs Keto. Quite a bit on the carnivorous side too.

I'm back to a 'normal' diet but this time I am not cutting out fats. In fact I'm eating lots of healthy fats (that were previously and maybe still are marked as "bad") such as eggs and butter and cream. I also eat carbs again, though I try for less sugary stuff. Cholesterol levels are slightly up again.

My conclusion: Carbs (overall) are the bad guy.

My doctor told me (again I have no papers to link) that the most up-to-date science nowadays seems to suggest that carbs, especially refined carbs, cause inflammation and calcium deposits in arteries which the body tries to "repair" (overlay) with cholesterol (that's its job). Problem is if it keeps doing that up to the point where it blocks. But cholesterol isn't the bad guy basically. It's just doing its job and if you don't eat the cholesterol, the body makes it by itself so that it has it available to do its job.