Cut Cholesterol To the Editors:

One look at the eggs and bacon on your cover [MEDICINE, March 26] and my husband was immersed in your report on cholesterol. For years I have been talking against fried foods without success. Now one issue of TIME has him telling me we should watch what we eat!

Joan Warner Davidson Rockville, Md.

Your story on cholesterol offers hope to millions of Americans. Why represent it with that sad face?

Richard J. Carroll Midlothian, III.

We do not need cholesterol researchers to prove the relationship between disease and diet. We need only heed Thoreau, who believed that a man can consider himself happy when that which is his food is also his medicine.

Mark Radomsky Carlisle, Pa.

Most people are epicureans and hedonists who would sell their soul for steak.

Robert G. Arthur Kings Park, N. Y.

Your article on the link between lowered cholesterol levels and the decline in the number of deaths from cardiovascular disease suggests that we should be consuming unpalatable foods. Prudent diets, which we recommend, are not punitive diets. People can limit rather than eliminate their intake of high-cholesterol foods like eggs and perhaps prolong their lives.

Claude Lenfant, M.D., Director

National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute

Bethesda, Md.

Instead of blaming red meat and eggs for their health problems, maybe people should give some thought to their gluttony. We in the livestock business have never advocated overindulgence. We produce high-quality products rich in vitamins, iron and protein. If the types of food we have been consuming for thousands of years are so bad for us, why is it that each generation is bigger and healthier and lives longer than the previous one?

Hatch C. Smith, President Livestock Marketing Association of Texas

Llano, Texas

For people over 65 who have normal cholesterol, I have been recommending consumption of an egg every day. Many older people cease to eat sufficient protein and other important nutrients. The egg a day often helps them lead an active and healthy life.

A. Edward Livingston, M.D. Bloomington, III.

To many people, cholesterol is usually synonymous with egg. I have heard people say they don't eat eggs yet hold a cigarette in one hand and a martini in the other. These same people will sit down to a meal of steak, French fries, a salad drowned in dressing, and pie `a la mode. Cholesterol per se does not cause heart disease. Rather, a high cholesterol level may be a symptom that one's life-style is out of whack. Our focus should not be on eggs but on making appropriate changes in our lifestyles.

Jackie Storm, Nutritionist New York City

From the picture of the 85-year-old woman's cholesterol-laden arteries, can we assume she might have lived two or three years more if she had denied herself 80 years of enjoyable eating?

Douglas A. Darch Wake Forest, N.C.

Few Friends

The fact that many nations fail to back us in the U.N. lends strong support to the demand that this country quit the international organization [NATION, March 26]. The indignity of our position in that body makes our continued membership untenable.

John Breckenridge Englewood, N.J.

The Reagan Administration is wrong to punish nations that do not support us in the U.N. by tying foreign aid to pro-U.S. voting records.

Robert Fredericks Palmyra, Pa.

You refer to our NATO ally Greece as a "fairweather friend" because its voting record in the U.N. frequently differs from that of the U.S. Our votes in the U.N. reflect our national interests. Greece's votes are based on its national interests. If you favor and expect a "bloc" vote, you have the wrong alliance in mind. For that, you will have to look to Moscow.

Dennis Menos Bethesda, Md.

Meese's Troubles

If President Reagan can find no one better than Edwin Meese to be Attorney General [NATION, March 26], maybe it is time for those of us who voted for Reagan to find a better man to be President.

Avis O. Cachet Hickory, N.C.

Senate Millionaires Howard Metzenbaum and Edward Kennedy are nitpicking the financial affairs of Ed Meese, who serves this country at great personal financial sacrifice. Their actions show them to be small-minded partisans, insensitive to the needs of someone who still works for a living.

Bob McCafferty Fair Oaks, Calif.

Trial by Television

Live coverage of the Fall River rape trial by Cable News Network was excellent [PRESS, March 26]. It is not surprising, however, that the trial proceedings were pornographic, coarse, vulgar and unpleasant. Rape is ugly. There is no nice way to resolve the legal question without the medical details. If we put our hands over our ears, we cannot make any progress in solving our social problems.

Dee Wolfenbarger Brownsville, Texas

CNN made a mistake in showing only selected scenes of the rape trial. If testimony is to be televised, it should be shown in its entirety so that the public has the same information as the jury. As CNN presented the case, it was entertainment, not education.

Russell O. Young New York City

Not only does a woman have to endure the humiliation and terror of gang rape, but she must now see her trial become a television show.

Christina Nocera Wagner Newtown Square, Pa.

Hussein's Plain Talk

King Hussein's public statements expressing concern over this country's pro-Israel bias were long overdue [WORLD, March 26]. The Government's retaliation by immediately canceling the Stinger missiles to Jordan unfortunately proved his point.

James A. Strand Monterey, Calif.

What a short memory Hussein has. Has he forgotten that in 1967 he attacked Israel despite Israel's pleas for Jordan to remain neutral? Had Hussein stayed out of the Six-Day War, the West Bank and part of Jerusalem would still be Jordan's.

Frederick K. Bauer

Beverly Hills, Calif.

No to Lilco

The article on nuclear power, "Pulling the Nuclear Plug" [ENERGY, Feb. 13], incorrectly states that Suffolk County's battle with Lilco over emergency planning has been resolved and that "emergency procedures were finally approved." No such approval has occurred. Early in 1983, after exhaustive study, I concluded that it would be impossible to protect the county's 1.3 million residents in the event of a nuclear accident at the Shoreham facility. The county legislature agreed. No formal emergency plan has ever been approved by Suffolk County or the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Peter F. Cohalan, Executive Suffolk County, N. Y.

Analyzing Red Riding Hood

My point of view differs from that of the experts who are psychoanalyzing Little Red Riding Hood [BEHAVIOR, March 19]. I am puzzled by the popularity of a story about a grandmother who cannot live with her children, a mother who does not herself bring the food of charity but sends her little girl on such a dangerous errand, a hunter who does not appear early enough to accompany the child, and a father who does not show up at all. Can it be that the fairy tale tells us more about culture than about human nature?

Eugene C. Su Farmington Hills, Mich.

Judging the Sinner

Marian Guinn, who was accused of misconduct by the leaders of the Church of Christ [RELIGION, March 26], knew that she was going against the teachings of the sect when she had an affair. Many people seek the church when they feel religious but forsake it whenever the tenets no longer please them.

(The Rev.) John W. Linlefield Hollywood

I think it only fair to grant Marian Guinn the right to choose her own lifestyle. By the same measure, the courts should not have the right to intervene in religious controversy.

(The Rev.) Kent Bailey Lenoir City, Tenn.

When someone voluntarily becomes a member of an organization, religious or secular, the rules and regulations governing that body must be followed. If they are not, the offender should be expelled, unless proper amends are made. It is that simple. A bad judicial decision in the Guinn case has possibly paved the way for many similar lawsuits.

Windi G. Riggs St. Augustine, Fla.

The elders obviously did not read far enough into the New Testament. If they had, they would know Jesus' answer to the scribes and Pharisees in a comparable situation, John 8: 7. "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her."

Walter H. Huse Fort Myers, Fla.

Faint Praise

Accompanying your story on Iran's first five years under the Ayatullah Khomeini [WORLD, March 12] is a photo of Communists on trial. I was intrigued when an Iranian friend translated the poster behind the defendants. It reads: "England is worse than the U.S., but the Soviet Union is worse than both of them." Now tell me, how can England be worse than "the Great Satan"? A friend suggests that perhaps it is because Margaret Thatcher refuses to wear the veil.

Bernie Steer Goiania, Brazil