Dietary and Pharmacologic Therapy for the Lipid Risk Factors

NUMEROUS reports during the past 25 years, including those of the American Medical Association's former Council on Foods and Nutrition,1-4have discussed the relationship between diet and coronary heart disease (CHD). In 1979, a general statement, "AMA Concepts of Nutrition and Health," was adopted by the Council on Scientific Affairs5and the House of Delegates. That statement emphasized that the maintenance of desirable body weight through the combination of dietary control and exercise was a basic step in modifying certain disease patterns. It was also recommended that persons at increased risk of coronary heart disease on the basis of their plasma lipid profiles "be given individualized dietary advice based on the type of hyperlipidemia diagnosed and that physicians encourage their patients to achieve or maintain desirable weight."5 Risk factors for CHD were reviewed by an American Heart Association (AHA) report through its Steering Committee for Medical and