Nutritional interventions in cardiovascular disease: new challenges and opportunities.

New opportunities for control of cardiovascular disease (CVD) through nutritional interventions can be divided into three areas: nutritional intervention on newly identified causes of CVD; nutritional strategies to more efficiently or equitably employ current, proven interventions; and nutritional approaches to reduce costs and improve effectiveness so that benefits can be expanded to more of the population. Examples of newly identified causes of CVD amenable to nutritional intervention include fetal/early childhood malnutrition and gene-environment interactions. Examples of more efficient or equitable nutritional strategies include better nutrition education for healthcare providers, patient education resources on the Internet, and widely available functional foods or nutriceuticals. Nutritional approaches to improve cost-effectiveness include better availability of foods associated with reduced CVD risk (eg, fruits, vegetables, fish) and supplementation of the American diet. The advances in nutritional strategies described in this monograph have the potential for population-wide CVD risk reduction.