The total amount of cholesterol in our body is approximately 140 g. This is a huge amount. The brain alone contains about 40 g. The only other chemically precisely defined substances that exist in the body in bigger quantities are calcium and phosphate.
The average daily cholesterol intake is approximately 300 to 600 mg. Cholesterol is found in all animal foods, but not in plant foods.
It is not known why, with increasing age, the cholesterol levels in many people increases. The assumption that this is due to diet, is wrong because cholesterol is produced by our body itself. It is an indication of the significance of cholesterol that virtually all tissues are able to form cholesterol.
This is the reason why some people continue to have high cholesterol even with the strictest diet. If less cholesterol is supplied by the food, the body itself increasingly produces cholesterol. In studies, 75% of all people showed no or only an insufficient change in their cholesterol levels through diets.

Why does our body produce cholesterol?
Cholesterol is not a waste product of our organism, but an important, vital substance. It is the decisive support substance for the cell walls to remain stable. It is necessary for the formation of hormones, as well as for the synthesis of vitamin D. In addition, it is an important part of our bile. Not only high cholesterol, but also a too low cholesterol levels can therefore be harmful.
This raises the question of why it is good to reduce cholesterol in the blood. The reason is a statistical correlation between the occurrence of elevated cholesterol levels and the incidence of vascular diseases, e.g. heart attacks and stroke (cerebrovascular accident). But a statistical correlation does not mean necessarily that you have found the cause of a disease, as the following example illustrates:
It is known that a heavy smoker often has two yellowish fingers on the hand, which holds the cigarette. A statistic would show that "yellowish fingers" and lung cancer often occur in combination. Nobody, however, would come up with the idea to treat lung cancer by the bleaching the fingers, because the cause of both is cigarette consumption.
There are just as many studies that find a link between cholesterol elevation and vascular diseases, as there are studies that come to a contrary conclusion. But reports about studies that classify cholesterol as a risk factor appear 5 to 8 times more often.

I would like to describe some results of medical research reports that are unfortunately not much known in public:
The lowest mortality rate among women was between cholesterol 260 mg % and 280 mg %, in men between 190 mg % and 240 mg %. Please note: All cholesterol levels over 200 mg %, however, are considered as high risk!
According to this target 70 to 80 % of all Germans over 40 years are "cholesterol sick"! Comparing the cholesterol level of patients who have already had a heart attack with those of healthy people, there is hardly any differences. Lowering cholesterol results in a slight decline in deaths from heart disease. At the same time, however, there was always an increase in deaths from other diseases.
To sum up, it can be said that there is apparently a weak association between high cholesterol and heart disease, but a general benefit from lowering cholesterol is not proven. An exception is a rare and hereditary form of blood lipid increase which is clearly influenced by a cholesterol reduction.
In today’s orthodox medicine there is, besides cholesterols, also homocysteine and lipoprotein considered to be risk factors for vascular changes. Homocysteine can be positively influenced by the administration of B vitamins, and lipoprotein may be positively influenced by vitamin C, but the studies are not obvious. It can be suspected that not elevated blood lipids, but a lack of vitamins and enzymes is the real risk factor for vascular disease.
Another interesting phenomenon can support this:

Eskimos live almost exclusively on animal food that is rich in cholesterol. Yet there is almost no vascular disease. Even Japanese eating the traditional way are diagnosed significantly less from heart attacks and disease. This is an incredible phenomenon, and was for a long time a medical mystery. The solution of this riddle came closer when we took into account that Eskimos who live in Denmark and Japanese who live in America had as many cardiovascular diseases as Europeans and Americans. Obviously, the way of life is crucial. Now, what Japanese living traditionally and Eskimos have in common is the fact that they almost exclusively eat their food raw. The large amounts of cholesterol in their diet is probably not harmful, because their food is uncooked and therefore rich in vitamins and enzymes.
Therefore, with elevated cholesterol levels a diet is very important. Through increased fruit and vegetable meals, we can increase our protective vitamin reserves.