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The Portfolio Diet: Lower Cholesterol Without Statin Drugs?

Find out whether the Portfolio Diet can help you lower cholesterol naturally through diet  … without Statin drugs.

Could dramatically lowering your cholesterol simply be a matter of eating the right combination of foods?

Dr. David J.A. Jenkins thinks so.  And if his research is right, it might actually be possible to cut cholesterol significantly just by eating the right foods, in the right combinations.

Jenkins, a nutrition and metabolism expert at the University of Toronto and the “Father” of the gylycemic index, calls it the “The Portfolio Diet” and the concept is actually quite straightforward: By combining a variety of foods that have been shown to lower cholesterol on their own, it may be possible to lower serum cholesterol naturally without resorting to prescription statin drugs.   

Besides having profound public health consequences, this approach to eating and cholesterol control also promises to lower the cost of treating high cholesterol, potentially saving millions in prescription drug costs and health issues that arise from the side-effects of prescription statin drugs.

The Portfolio Diet: The Sum Is Greater Than The Parts?

For more than a decade, researchers have known that certain foods like oatmeal and soy can help lower blood cholesterol levels. However, until recently these foods have been viewed more or less independently of each other.

Dr. Jenkins decided to take a look at how combining a variety of foods that have been shown to reduce cholesterol might collectively work together, providing more bang for your buck.  

Jenkins’ study took a look at forty-six healthy, middle-aged adults who had high cholesterol. The subjects were divided into three groups:

1.  One group was placed on a whole-grain and low-fat dairy diet that was low in saturated fats;
2.  The second group followed the same diet, but also took a lovastatin, a cholesterol-reducing statin drug;
3.  The third group ate a diet high in plant sterols, ”sticky” fiber, soy and almonds.   

All groups experienced a reduction in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL), and not surprisingly, the statin group experienced the most dramatic drop — a 30.9 percent reduction.

However, what did surprise researchers was the reductions seen in the porfolio diet group, which experienced a 28.9 percent reduction in fasting blood cholesterol levels, making it nearly as effective at cutting cholesterol as prescription statin drugs.

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Espresso Royale Organic Dark Sipping Chocolate | Healthy Snack of the Day

Get The Health Benefits of Organic Dark Chocolate without the Fat and Calories with this Fantastic Premium Dark Hot Chocolate

Chocolate and fat-loss are not two things you normally associate with each other. But with evidence mounting that chocolate, especially the dark variety, has a number of health benefits it’s suddenly become okay to include a little dark chocolate in your diet, even if your goal is fat loss.

The Health Benefits of Dark Chocolate

Because chocolate is made from plants, it contains many of the same types of phytochemicals and polyphenols – including powerful flavanoids (specifically epicatechin and gallic acid) with antioxidant properties — that you find in other antioxidant powerhouses like blueberries, pomegranates, tea and red wine. 

Antioxidants are believed to help the body’s cells resist damage caused by free radicals, which are formed by normal bodily processes such as breathing or environmental contaminants like cigarette smoke or environmental pollution. 

In fact, in terms of total antioxidants, chocolate ranks at the top of the list.

It also contains arginine, an amino acid that helps the body produce nitric oxide (NOS), which aids in cell division, wound healing, and removal of ammonia from the body. Arginine also is a vasodialator — which means it causes blood vessel relaxation, which can decrease blood pressure. There is also some indication that arginine may improve sexual function as well, which may explain why chocolate is considered an aphrodisiac.

The health benefits of chocolate may include:

• Lower blood pressure, especially among people with hypertension
• Increased HDL cholesterol (the “good” kind of cholesterol)
• Increase glucose metabolism
• Improvements in mood
• Possible anti-cancer properties due to the high antioxidant content of dark chocolate

Over the past decade, a number of studies have provided clinical research to back up some of these health claims.

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