Diet	Commercial examples	Calorie restriction?	Fat intake	Fruit and vegetable intake	Saturated and trans -fat intake	Challenges	Summary
Very low-carbohydrate2–11	Atkins diet	No	Unlimited	Severely limited	Unlimited, but discouraged	Requires urine ketone monitoring	No patient-oriented outcomes or long-term data; may improve triglyceride and HDL levels; better for short-term weight loss
Low-carbohydrate/low-glycemic index9,11–15	South Beach Diet, the Zone, Sugar Busters!	No	Unlimited	Limited	Limited	Requires knowledge of glycemic index	Offers sound principles without ample patient-oriented data
Very low-fat9,11,16–22	Ornish diet	No	Less than 10 percent of total calories	Vegetarian-based diet	None	Requires meditation, vegetarian diet, smoking cessation	Perfusion improvements and symptom reductions; very strict diet; lowers HDL levels
Mediterranean diet23–31	NA	No	Unlimited	Unlimited	Limited	Costly, limited in some populations because of lack of produce or fatty acid sources	Excellent mortality data, but limited study populations
American Heart Association guidelines32	NA	Yes	Unlimited	Unlimited	Saturated fat: less than 7 percent of total calories Trans-fat: Less than 1 percent of total calories	Broad guidelines	Same as TLC Diet, but with a greater emphasis on overall cardiovascular risk reduction and population health improvements