Researchers in Canada have shown that a special cholesterol-lowering diet works well – even with only two nutritional counseling sessions over six months.

Making dietary changes like eating oat bran for breakfast, drinking soy milk instead of dairy, soy burgers in place of hamburgers, and fruit and nuts instead of a full lunch prompted a double-digit drop in both total cholesterol and LDL or “bad” cholesterol.

The study was published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Lead author Dr. David Jenkins, Canada research chair in nutrition and metabolism at the University of Toronto and St. Michael’s Hospital, had previously shown the effectiveness of a cholesterol-lowering diet when all the meals were provided to participants.

via Bran, soy help cut cholesterol – The Chart – CNN.com Blogs.