Mediterranean and Portfolio diets

If you need to lower your cholesterol and want to try changing your diet first, your best bets are a Mediterranean-type diet or the so-called portfolio diet. In a head-to-head trial, a standard low-fat diet had little effect on cholesterol.

Mediterranean-type diets

There's no such thing as "the" Mediterranean diet. You may already be following one and not know it (see "Mediterranean quiz"). Here are the general characteristics:

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