For the past 60 years there has been a concerted effort to demonize saturated fats, found in animal products and tropical oils, and cholesterol, in our food and blood. Despite the well-established health benefits of diets rich in cholesterol and saturated fat, flawed, deceptive and biased research has created the myth that a low fat, plant-based diet is ideal for good health. Poorly conducted epidemiological research, U.S. government intervention and misinformation conveyed by contemporary lifestyle researchers have contributed to the current state of confusion on dietary influences on health. The public must educate themselves on how to optimize their diet and cardiovascular health.

David M. Diamond is a professor in the Departments of Psychology and Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology at the University of South Florida and is a Research Career Scientist at theTampa Veterans Hospital, where he has directed his research program on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). He has also served as the Director of the USF Neuroscience Collaborative program and is a Fellow at the American Institute of Stress and the International Stress and Behavior Society.

Dr. Diamond has served on federal government study sections and committees evaluating research on the neurobiology of stress and memory, and has over 100 publications, reviews and book chapters on the brain and memory. He has served on the editorial boards of numerous medical journals and has received over 25 years of federally funded support for his research.In the past decade, Dr. Diamond has expanded his research program to include cardiovascular disease and nutrition. His controversial research is an extension of an advanced seminar he directs at the University of South Florida entitled “Myths and Deception in Medical Research”, which emphasizes the critical evaluation of methods and conflicts of interest in health-related research. In recent years he added to his list of publications controversial papers on diet, cholesterol and statins, including one paper published in the peer-reviewed medical journal “Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology”, which described the deceptive practices employed by researchers promoting statins for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. Dr. Diamond has been invited to present his myth-busting views on nutrition and cholesterol to lay people and physicians at nutrition, cardiology, obesity and diabetes conferences all over the world.

Dr. Diamond received his Ph.D. in Biology in 1985, with a specialization in Behavioral Neuroscience, from the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory at the University of California, Irvine.