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During the next four years, NHSA sponsored free cholesterol testing for 200,000 people in 16 cities and towns across the U.S. To spread the word further, Sokolof in 1988 successfully lobbied Congress to designate April as "Know Your Cholesterol Month" and heralded the fact with full-page ads in major newspapers. That month more Americans had their cholesterol tested than in any previous month. Sokolof was elated, but concerned that the public was still unaware that many of its favorite food brands were laden not only with cholesterol but also with saturated fat, which the body converts into cholesterol.
The next month, he mailed 11,000 letters to food-industry officials. The first sentence was bound to catch their attention: "Is your company an accessory in the deaths of untold numbers of heart attack victims?" The letter went on to urge the food companies to remove coconut and palm oil from their products, as well as lard and beef tallow, all of which contain high levels of saturated fat. NHSA, the letter warned, planned soon to alert the public about "the dangers of highly saturated oil products."
Few companies bothered to respond, and Sokolof's follow-up telephone calls went largely unheeded. "When I said, 'I'm Phil Sokolof from Heart Savers,' " he recalls, "that was the same as saying, 'I'm Joe Blow from Podunk.' "
But, as the food companies learned, Phil Sokolof was not a man to be ignored. In October 1988, they were confronted by full-page newspaper ads written and designed by Sokolof and headlined THE POISONING OF AMERICA! The text identified the poisoners: food processors who used tropical oils high in saturated fats. "We implore you. Do not buy products containing palm oil or coconut oil," the ads warned. "Your life may be at stake." Pictured below, to the horror of several major companies, was an assortment of some of + America's favorite brand-name foods.
The intensity of the reaction surprised even Sokolof. Corporate executives, or lawyers representing them, called Omaha and threatened lawsuits. But as sales of some of the brands pictured in the ad plummeted, seven large companies announced in quick succession that they were removing tropical oils from their products.
More POISONING OF AMERICA ads followed, and when Nabisco failed to budge, Sokolof singled it out, concluding, "The American public deserves better from its largest food processor." The following day a Nabisco executive called Sokolof to assure him that the giant company would hasten the reformulation of its products.
"I feel that I have developed a rapport with the American public," Sokolof says. "They like the fact that a little guy in Omaha is sitting here and taking on Nabisco, a $25 billion corporation. I've had some success, and I've made a lot of money, but compared with Nabisco, I'm a pimple on an elephant's fanny."
Having whipped the food processors into line, Sokolof redirected his fire. In yet another POISONING ad last April, he took on the fast-food chains, focusing on the largest. MCDONALD'S, a subheadline charged, YOUR HAMBURGERS HAVE TOO MUCH FAT! A combination of a Big Mac and French fries, the ad reported, was "loaded" with 25 grams of saturated fat, and those French fries were cooked in fat-laden beef tallow.