Dietary management of the patient with atherosclerosis: are the new National Cholesterol Education Panel recommendations enough?

The black patient has a poorer prognosis with arteriosclerotic heart disease than does a white patient and needs a more aggressive approach to reduce cholesterol and other risk factors. The new National Cholesterol Education Panel recommendations are similar to those used in the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial study which lowered cholesterol levels only by 5% to 7% over a seven-year period. We recommend a more aggressive dietary approach introducing the postinfarction patient to a less than 10% fat and 50 mg cholesterol vegetarian diet while recovering in the hospital.