and, regarding the nuts.

yeah, it's true that eating a plate of nuts is better than eating a plate of cow. so, if the choice is between eating cow and eating nuts, you should pick nuts. it may follow that if you're starting from a point of terrible health, switching from cow to nuts might improve your health - and thereby lower your bad cholesterol. but, you don't want to extrapolate that into a claim that nuts are good for you, or lower cholesterol, in general - they're still high in fat, and somebody that is in good health to start with still wants to be careful with their consumption.