Sobieraj.Com Nutrition Health Education

Portfolio Diet

©2005 by Jerry Sobieraj, MD

The Portfolio diet combines four foods, all of which individually lowered cholesterol in earlier studies. The diet was designed by University of Toronto reseachers, and published in Metabolism and JAMA in 2003. The four foods that make up the Portfolio diet are:

Almonds15 grams (about a dozen almonds) per 1000 Cal
Soluble Fiber10 grams per 1000 Cal
Soy Protein25 grams per 1000 Cal
Plant Sterols2 grams per 1000 Cal

Soluble fiber may come from fruits, vegetables, legumes and oat bran. The following data is from the Portfolio paper and a paper they reference by James W Anderson, Dietary fiber content of selected foods, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1988: 440-7.

Food Sourcegrams soluble fiber per 100g dry weight
Kellog's All Bran5 grams
Oat Bran8 grams
Rolled Oats5 grams
Aspargus, canned6 grams
Beets, canned8 grams
Broccoli, frozen14 grams
Brussel Sprouts, frozen11 grams
Cabbage, Raw9 grams
Carrots, Raw11 grams
Cauliflower, frozen9 grams
Kale, frozen10 grams
Lettuce4 grams
Spinach, frozen6 grams
Squash7 grams
Tomato2 grams
Green Beans, canned8 grams
Kidney Beans5 grams
Navy Beans8 grams
Pinto Beans8 grams
Lentils2 grams
Apple4 grams
Banana2 grams
Orange or Grapefruit7 grams
Peach or Pear7 grams
Plum9 grams

Eggplant (200 grams every other day) and Okra (100 grams every other day) were additional sources of souble fiber used in the Portfolio study.
Soy protein may be a bit harder to incorporate into your diet, but can be done gradually with the following foods:

Soy Milk5-8 grams / 8 ounces
Soy Chips8 grams / 120 calories
Tofu10 grams / 3 ounces
Soybeans, cooked10 grams / 4 ounces

Plant sterols at the levels required by the Portfolio diet can only be acheived by using margarine like products such as Benecol© or Take Control©. The only food which has more than 100 mg of plant sterols per serving is an Avacado (130 mg per 6 ounces). Corn Oil is another source with 130 mg per tablespoon. Soybeans can not only be a source of soy protein, but they also have 45 mg of plant sterols per 4 ounces.

Additional Portfolio information may be found at the Almond Board of California's Portfolio Site.

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