“…Dietary modification remains the preferred initial treatment option for improving major lipid risk factors rather than instigating drug therapy (NCEP, 2001;Anderson, 2003). Jenkins and coworkers recently proposed the 'Portfolio diet' as a new approach to lipid management: the diet utilizes a combination of hypocholesterolaemic agents such as psyllium, oats, nuts, plant sterols and soy protein to provide an additive effect in reducing total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), equivalent to first-line drug therapy (Jenkins et al, 2002a(Jenkins et al, , 2003. Dietary intervention studies have shown that numerous legumes (eg, soy beans, navy beans, field beans, lentils, chickpeas and pinto beans) beneficially modify serum lipids (Jenkins et al, 1983;Anderson et al, 1984Anderson et al, , 1990Anderson et al, , 1995Duane, 1997;Fruhbeck et al, 1997).…”