>>>Nutritional experts that I've talked to all say that your body produces the vast majority of the bad cholesterol in your system. Diet has very little impact upon that.
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>>You are talking to the wrong experts. Diet has EVERYTHING to do with it for the majority of normal metabolisms.
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>Obviously I beg to differ. Genetics is the largest single variable in the whole thing. And genetics determines whether or not your body produces high amounts of cholesterol or not. However, the politically correct health care industry realizes that we have no control over out genetics (yet) so they push diet and/or exercise (the next two leading factors). But since Americans are, by and large, lazy and don't want to have to work out and because fad diets have been popular for so many years - most of what you see in the news is geared toward diet.

So do I! :)
That's why I used the term "normal". Perhaps median or average would have been better. Everyone has the same "Krebs Cycle" functioning in each of their cells. This cycle consumes dextrose and oxygen, producing Adenosine TriPhosphate and CO2. ATP is the "gasoline" of the body. All the cells use the energy obtained, by converting it to ADP to power the other life sustaining processes that cells must do, like flexing, pumping Sodium and Potassium, etc..
Few people are genetically predetermined to be obese and end up with cholesterol clogging their arteries. Those that are you can usually spot because they have blockages even when they are pencil thin. Most of us eat too many carbs and fats and don't exercise enough so we are lacking red muscle mass that burns most of the excess carbs off. With age, cellular reproduction starts to misfire as telomeres get clipped, producing cells with fewer capabilities that the previous generation. So, where once you could eat milk products without problems, somewhere above your 40th birthday you began to notice that ice cream makes you bloated or even forces you to pass wind.

Another problem is the fast food industry. McDonald's and the others use beef and chicken that are fed estrogen and other hormones in order to accelerate their deveopment time to market, from 18 months to 6 months. The excess hormone ends up in the burger or chicken and makes 10 year old Johnny obese and gives him breasts that would make Madonna jealous. (This is to say nothing about the problems caused by antibiotics fed to accelerated livestock.)
JLK