OK, here goes my two cents!!!
I heard many horror stories of people who were deathly ill from the Atkins diet. Furthermore, just because you are losing weight on any diet does not mean you are losing “fat” you could be losing water and “muscle” which is not a good weight to be losing. The point of losing weight is to be losing “fat” pounds and not “muscle”. You should be building muscle because muscle helps burn calories and helps your metabolism. So all these fad diets just fool your body and that is why when you go off them you gain the weight back. Many of my friends tried the Atkins diet and it worked for a while when they were on it but they gained back all the weight they lost plus more!!!
The only way to lose weight and keep it off is to do it with the guidance of your doctor and a real nutritionist who helps you understand what you are eating, why you are eating it and how to make a lifestyle change to healthy eating. Know what your body needs and how to fuel it to the maximum benefit. Your nutritionist will also teach you how to read labels and what they mean.
About the original topic cholesterol, sometimes it has nothing to do with your food. It could be a genetic disposition and it could also elevate because of stress. My doctor put me on a medication called Lovaza which is a prescription fish oil product in addition to the lipitor and that helped bring my cholesterol down. In my case it is genetic and has nothing to do with my diet, however it has a lot to do with my stress levels. Doctors are very careful with the standard cholesterol meds because they can have an adverse effect on your liver. So anyone on cholesterol medication must be monitored by a doctor.