ABSTRACT
Over the past 30 years, the cellular and molecular basis of coronary artery disease (CAD) has been demonstrated to be linked to inflammation promoted by unbalanced nutrition, hypertension, diabetes, stress, sedentary lifestyle, obesity, and poor-quality diets. The reduction of the progression of atherosclerosis through modulation of inflammatory, immune, and vascular factors reinforces a nutritional approach to secondary prevention in individuals with diagnosed CAD. For patients who have yet to develop disease of the coronary arteries, the concept of heart disease is theoretical and focused on a reduction in cholesterol and other lipid levels for some preventive benefit, as discussed in Chapter 9. The emphasis of that chapter was to move patients away from a sole focus on cholesterol by discussing lipid disorders and metabolism broadly, while stressing the importance of triglycerides, dyslipidemia, and the metabolic syndrome as the most common lipid disorders.
