151 every year americans adopt new diet trends from the juicing craze to glutenfree diets and each new fad promises health benefits such as weight loss and higher energy but as specific diets become more popular doctors wanted to assess whether they would help the one part of the body that carries the most risk for both men and women in the us the heart in order to get a better sense of which diets were the most heart healthy researchers examined more than 25 peerreviewed studies and published their findings today in a new report in the journal of the american college of cardiology there is sort of mass confusion about what foods are healthy or not healthy lead study author dr andrew freeman director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at national jewish health in denver colorado told abc news when you take the time to weigh through the data and the evidence it becomes clear he continued human beings havent changed all that much in the last many many years researchers from 12 institutions including george washington university school of medicine and national jewish health analyzed the studies which together included tens of thousands of participants in order to determine what types of foods appear given currently available research to help the heart after an indepth review of the scientific data researchers found the most hearthealthy diet includes foods like extravirgin olive oil antioxidantrich berries green leafy vegetables plantbased proteins nuts in moderation and can include lean meats to cut down on cholesterol the study authors suggest limiting or eliminating coconut and palm oils which are high in saturated fatty acids and eggs which raise the level of cholesterol in the bloodstream dietary requirements havent really changed freeman continued the diet that is most cardioprotective is mostly plant based predominantly fruits vegetables whole grains and limited amounts of animal products if any however dr keith ayoob associate professor of pediatrics at albert einstein college of medicine who was not involved in the studies says that diet issues are rarely so black and white and that doctors need to approach each patients diet in a more holistic manner when youre talking about dietary cholesterol sometimes i get more concerned with the companion foods what kind of company are those eggs keeping ayoob said do you eat them plain boiled fried in butter cooked with olive oil simply relying on advice like eating in moderation is too vague ayoob added and can mean different things for different people he said patients should be given more guidance about exactly how to eat healthy i think the idea of moderation is more of a mantra ayoob said but i think we would do well to define it a little bit better in addition to looking at the benefits of specific foods researchers looked for evidence that recent popular diets to limit gluten or consume vegetables and fruits via juicing were heart healthy researchers found that the process of