#439: Prof. David Jenkins - Lipid-Lowering Diets
Sigma Nutrition Radio
Danny Lennon
4.8 • 626 Ratings
🗓️ 23 May 2022
⏱️ 62 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
With elevated LDL-cholesterol being a causal risk factor for atherosclerotic heart disease, having interventions to lower blood lipids, and in particular LDL-C, are crucial for population health. A number of drugs are now incredibly effective for this, with statins being the most widely used.
However, for those who do not wish to take a medication and/or have only a mild elevation, there may be potential for dietary intervention to lower LDL-C to a point where a statin (or other drug) is not needed.
A number of aspects of healthy dietary patterns have been known to reduce the liklihood of elevated blood lipids. Most notably perhaps, the ratio of polyunsaturated to saturated fat in the diet (P:S ratio). And an absolute low level of saturated fat in the diet (e.g. < 10% of calories).
However, work by Dr. David Jenkins and collegegues put forward the idea of a “portfolio” of specific nutrients/foods that could additionally lower LDL-C. This became known as the Portfolio Diet. The four primary pillars of this portfolio diet are: soy protein, viscous fibers, nuts, and plant sterols.
In this episode, Danny talks to the originator of this work, Dr. Jenkins.
Links:
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the podcast. This is Danny Lennon, and you're very welcome to Sigma Nutrition |
| 0:05.3 | Radio, the podcast where you get to hear detailed nuanced discussions about nutrition science |
| 0:10.4 | completely free of sensationalist, biased or pseudo-scientific preaching about a particular diet. |
| 0:16.9 | Rather, we focus on coming to fair conclusions based on the principles of evidence-based practice |
| 0:21.8 | and scientific inquiry. As you're hearing this message, that means you're listening on our |
| 0:26.8 | public feed of the podcast. If you want to get supplementary material that's going to enhance |
| 0:31.5 | your learning, then you may be interested in subscribing to our private premium feed, Sigma |
| 0:36.5 | Nutrition Premium, with a bunch of cool features. |
| 0:39.9 | So if you want more details on that, then just stay listening at the end of this episode. |
| 0:44.0 | Or right now, you can go and check out the details at sigmautrition.com or just click the link |
| 0:49.3 | in the description box of this episode. Your support is what makes it possible for us to continue to produce the |
| 0:55.8 | content that we do. And so with that, let's dive into this episode. |
| 1:17.5 | Hello and welcome to another episode of Sigma Nutrition Radio. |
| 1:24.0 | My name is Danny Lennon and you are listening to episode 439 of the podcast. |
| 1:26.9 | You are very welcome back if you're a regular listener. |
| 1:28.2 | Or indeed, if this is the first time listening, I hope you enjoy. Here we talk all about nutrition science. And indeed, |
| 1:34.4 | today I have the immense honor of talking to a true giant of nutrition science. But before that, |
| 1:40.5 | a very quick word for those of you who can get to Dublin, Ireland, this weekend |
| 1:45.8 | is going to be our live event, the Sigma Nutrition Conference, with our keynote session |
| 1:51.1 | by Dr. Deirdre Tobias of Harvard Medical School, who is one of the best nutrition epidemiologists |
| 1:57.5 | on planet Earth and one of my favorite, favorite researchers to follow and look at |
| 2:03.0 | her work. And I have the immense privilege of her being our keynote this weekend. I'll be there |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Danny Lennon, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Danny Lennon and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.