REPLY
Make Low-Cholesterol Diets Tasty
Thomas A. Pearson, MD, PhD
1 April 1994 | Volume 120 Issue 7 | Pages 621-622
IN RESPONSE:
Dr. La Puma correctly emphasizes the need to consider factors influencing the compliance with a low-cholesterol diet, including food flavor. Dietary behaviors are complex. The number and sophistication of studies of eating habits of patients with hypercholesterolemia before and after dietary counseling are surprisingly limited [1]. We need to know more about what motivates patients to initiate and maintain dietary changes, including that cluster of physiologic and cultural responses called taste.
However, we agree with Dr. La Puma that substitution of dietary fat does not necessarily mean loss of taste. Moreover, the goal of substitution of other foodstuffs for those high in fat may indeed be to maintain flavor rather than to abstain from that specific food group. The real punchline is that physicians must become better counselors on dietary choices for their patients. Studies published in Annals merely expand the database from which physicians might accurately select the healthiest, and tastiest, food for their patients.
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Author and Article Information
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Research Institute; Cooperstown, NY 13326
1. Pearson TA, Brown WV, Donato K, Franklin FA Jr, Luepker RB, McBride PE, et al. Lipids. Report of the AHA Prevention Conference III. Circulation. 1993; 88:1375-407.
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