The diet is only a small part of a given lifestyle, so we can't just boil down the French or mediterranean lifestyles to simply a (stereotypical) diet, rather than looking at all the factors.

It matters how much of that stereotypical food you eat, and the totality of the ingredients.

Plus how sedentary people are, how many snacks they eat outside of meals, hobbies, work, and a whole host of other factors.

The general scientific consensus is pretty clear that saturated fats are unhealthy, trans fats are the worst, and dietary cholesterol seems to not impact serum cholesterol. Science marches on,