Portfolio Diet Lowers Many Risk Factors for Heart Disease

Article Source: University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine University of Toronto researchers have found that the portfolio diet, a plant-based way of eating previously shown to lower cholesterol levels, reduces other risk factors for cardiovascular disease including blood pressure, triglycerides and inflammation. In addition to reducing LDL (or ‘bad’) cholesterol by about 30 per cent when combined with a low-saturated fat diet — a level comparable to medications — the researchers found the diet limited other factors for an estimated 13 per cent reduction in the overall risk for coronary heart disease, which includes angina and heart attack. “We’ve known the portfolio diet lowers LDL cholesterol, but we didn’t have a clear picture of what else it could do,” says John Sievenpiper, an associate professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at U of T and a staff physician and