> A cholesterol level that high may indicate a genetic condition called
> "familial hypercholesterolemia" which is probably not related to diet.

I tend to believe cholesterol levels to be *very* hereditary.

My father - who passed away last year at the age of 83, primarily from lung
problems caused by lifelong smoking - *never* had any cholesterol issues,
even though he drank coffee continuously every day (as if it were water). I
would guess that during the last 20 years most of the coffee he drank was
filtered, but the fifty or so years prior to that it would have been either
percolated or boiled.

I would like to attribute my own normal cholesterol levels (as well as
other health indicators) to a paleo-ish diet, but I don't feel that I can
because of my genetic history. YMMV