> I don't know how much to make of total cholesterol,
> and I know there's a lot of debate particularly about
> the potential harm from trying to lower it. People
> also say that having a reading under 160 or something
> like that can lead to higher cancer (though I'm not
> sure that is specifically from the low cholesterol or
> perhaps from the drugs that are used to lower it. . .)
>
> What I found, though, is the following:
>
> Finally, serum cholesterol levels for hunter-gatherers
> are astonishingly low by modern standards--in the
> 101-146 mg/dl range. (See Eaton et al. [1988, pp.
> 742-745] for the tables the preceding data comes
> from.)
>
> If one's goal is to try to regain the readings of our
> paleo ancestors, then what is to be made of this?


Hate to exhibit my ignorance, but can someone explain to me how in the world
anyone can determine what serum cholesterol levels were in our paleo
ancestors?  Did they find some references to "Og = 120 mg/dl"  chiseled on a
cave wall somewhere?