Mediterranean and Vegetarian Diets Can Improve Cholesterol in People with Type 2 Diabetes

Poor cholesterol is a risk factor for heart disease, but dietary approaches can be used to keep cholesterol in check. In this review, researchers analyzed 52 randomized controlled trials (the “gold standard” of nutrition research) encompassing 5,360 people with type 2 diabetes, to determine the relationship between diet and cholesterol. They found that vegetarian diets most effectively reduced LDL (“bad”) cholesterol compared with control diets, and that the Mediterranean diet was the overall most effective diet to treat poor cholesterol, raising HDL (“good”) cholesterol and lowering triglycerides (a type of fat in the blood that is a risk factor for heart disease when elevated).
European Journal of Epidemiology. 2019 Jun 14. doi: 10.1007/s10654-019-00534-1. [Epub ahead of print] (Neuenschwander M et al.)