[Nutrition and cardiovascular disease prevention: myths and realities]

The dietary approach to cardiovascular disease often boils down to a few "classical" tips. However the data concerning the links between food and the health of the heart and arteries have never been as well substantiated as they are now. This paper reviews, in the various nutritional categories, the most recent findings concerning those nutritional factors influencing in one way or another the risk of cardiovascular disease. Each nutritional category includes foodstuffs which sometimes behave in very different ways. This "wide-ranging" approach to nutrition allows, besides repeating the basic messages (i.e. the importance of vegetables, the choice of fats, etc.), to counter some myths and to contemplate new ways of enabling positive, sound and personalized advice to be given.