Friday April 16, 05:09 AM - CHICAGO (Reuters) - Phil Sokolof, amillionaire industrialist whose own near-fatal heart attack at age 43spurred a crusade against the evils of fatty foods, died on Thursday, hisorganization said.Sokolof, 82, died in an Omaha, Nebraska, hospital after a short illnessthat was not heart-related, said a spokeswoman for the National HeartSavers Association, the organization he founded in the mid-1980s.

He claimed to have spent $15 million on his campaigns that began in 1988with full-page newspaper ads headlined "The Poisoning of America,"highlighting the unhealthy saturated fats in palm oil and coconut oil usedin many processed foods.

Several large food companies such as Kraft and Procter & Gamble eventuallyresponded to the outcry by switching to oils lower in fat.

He also targeted fast-food giants like McDonald's for marketing foodsloaded with artery-clogging fat, sparking the removal of beef tallow fromfrench fries and the moves toward lower-fat menus.

Sokolof considered his greatest achievement passage of the 1991 federallaw that required food labels to carry "nutrition facts," the Heart Saversgroup said in a statement.

Sokolof staged huge cholesterol testing fairs, beginning in the Nebraskacity of Grand Island, in which hundreds of thousands of people wereinformed of their cholesterol levels and told of the risks of heartdisease.

His own heart attack at age 43 led him to cut out the greasy foods of histraditional Jewish upbringing, which he believed elevated his bloodcholesterol to dangerous levels.

Sokolof made his fortune by founding the Phillips Manufacturing Co., whichmade products for the home building industry. He sold the company todevote himself to the cause of improving Americans' health.

He was largely responsible for April being designated by Congress"National Know Your Cholesterol Month."