Phil Sokolof, a Nebraska industrialist whose heart attack turned him into a national evangelist of a low-cholesterol diet, died on Thursday in Omaha. He was 82.

His death was announced by the National Heart Savers Association, of which he was the founder and president and through which he pursued his campaign against fat and cholesterol. The cause was heart failure, his family said.

Mr. Sokolof, a prosperous maker of construction supplies like drywall, had his epiphany in 1966. That was when, he said later, he -- a lean nonsmoker who worked out regularly but moderately -- had the heart attack that nearly killed him.

The event focused his mind on dietary considerations. ''I was a student in the greasy hamburger school of nutrition for my first 43 years,'' Mr. Sokolof wrote in 1991. ''But a shocking 300 cholesterol level got my attention.''