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How food, not drugs can help lower bad cholesterol

Cardiologist Elizabeth Klodas advocates diet and lifestyle changes as the first way to help reduce risks of heart disease.

GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — When the new cholesterol treatment guidelines were introduced at the recent American Heart Association (AHA) Conference, presenters spent 90 minutes discussing 72 ways to treat patients with drugs and about 12 seconds on diet.

"While most doctors don’t even mention diet to patients, no amount of medicine can counteract the effects of a Twinkie,” says top cardiologist Elizabeth Klodas, MD, and co-founder of Step One Foods. “Eighty percent of heart disease is preventable. Most cases are diet and lifestyle-driven.” 

Klodas is taking a less commonly accepted approach than her peers by offering a research-validated solution: foods that act as medicine. She’s revealing the results of a new study, presented at the AHA Conference, which showed most people can lower their LDL (bad) cholesterol as much as if they were using a statin drug simply by making two simple food swaps each day.

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