A manufacturer, Sokolof made millions on his invention of special drywall stripping. But in 1966, at the age of 43, he suffered a massive heart attack. He was shocked: “I was thin. I did exercises every day. I ran a mile every day. My blood pressure was low. I didn’t smoke. I knew how to handle stress. I had a wonderful wife and happy marriage.”
Doctors blamed his high-fat diet: “If it was greasy, I ate it,” he once said. His cholesterol was 300. So he founded the National Heart Savers Association and lobbied food companies to turn out healthier fare. His advertising campaigns helped convince fast food companies to make french fries in vegetable oil instead of beef tallow, and successfully lobbied for a new law requiring nutritional labeling on food packaging.
Sokolof sold his company in 1992 to work full-time delivering his message, and in 1995 led the campaign to stop calling 2% milk “low fat,” paying for $500,000 in advertising to help public awareness out of his own pocket. All told he spent about $15 million to make people aware of the dangers of a high-fat diet. “I’ll never retire,” he once vowed. “I’ll be working until they carry me out feet first.” They did: he died April 15, from heart failure. He was 82.