Need to reduce your cholesterol? Try a diet that includes red yeast rice and fish oil. Want to pare back your risk of diabetes? For women, eating fruit and leafy green vegetables may help.

It’s no secret that eating healthy foods promotes good health. Entire books have been written about it. But specific foods and diets have varying impacts on certain aspects of your health. Knowing what to eat can make a difference.

Studies at Harvard University have shown that the right diet, which means eating less, consuming lots of vegetables and fruits and unsaturated fats paired with exercise would prevent more than 80 percent of heart attacks, 70 percent of strokes and 90 percent of type 2 diabetes cases.

Fish oil and red yeast rice (3)
Taking fish oil and red yeast rice supplements plus adopting a healthy lifestyle works as well as taking a statin for reducing high cholesterol, according to a University of Pennsylvania study. Although statins are considered safe, for those unwilling or unable to take them, this diet might be an option.

Researchers evaluated patients who engaged in diet and exercise counseling plus took 40 milligrams of Merck & Co. Inc.’s Zocor (simvastatin) for 12 weeks and compared them to patients who used an alternative regimen that consisted of taking fish oil and red yeast rice supplements for 12 weeks plus participating in a lifestyle program. The patients who used the alternative treatment experienced a 42.4 percent drop in LDL, or "bad," cholesterol and lost more weight than the statin group, which saw a 39.6 percent decline in LDL cholesterol.

However, the investigators cautioned that a larger trial needs to be conducted to validate the findings as well as to study the cardiovascular effects of the alternative regimen.

Fruit and leafy green vegetables (4)
Eating fruit and leafy green vegetables appears to cut the risk of diabetes in women. A recent study conducted at Tulane University showed that women who ate more green leafy vegetables and fruit had a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Specifically, it was among women who increased their fruit consumption by 3 servings per day and those who increased their consumption of green leafy vegetables by 1 serving per day. In the same study, the researchers also found that a higher consumption of fruit juices, however, seemed to increase the risk of diabetes.

The study looked at 71,346 female nurses who did not have diabetes when they enrolled in the study in 1984. Researchers followed the women during an 18-year period that ended in June 2002.

"If fruits and vegetables are used to replace refined grains and white potatoes, both of which have been shown to be associated with increased risk of diabetes, the benefits of regular consumption of fruits and vegetables should be substantial," the study authors said.

Vegan diet and rheumatoid arthritis (1)
Eating nuts, sunflower seeds, fruits and vegetables might protect people with rheumatoid arthritis against heart attacks and strokes, according to a Swedish study. The diet, researchers found, eased some symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis as well as lowered cholesterol in the patients.

Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm placed 38 people on gluten-free vegan foods and 28 others on a balanced but non-vegan diet for one year. Those on the vegan diet had lower levels of LDL, or "bad," cholesterol and also lost weight while those on the more mainstream diet showed no change in their weight.

Bread and its impact on glucose, insulin levels (2)
A recent study that evaluated the impact of different breads on glucose and insulin levels in people with type 2 diabetes showed that whole wheat bread is no different than white bread.

In the study of 121 patients with type 2 diabetes, investigators measured blood glucose levels two hours after each patient ate a certain type of bread. They found no differences in glucose levels between patients who ate white bread, whole wheat bread, wheat bread or rye bread.

"This study demonstrates that bread types consumed as an alternative to white wheat bread in our country for diabetes or obesity do not have less effect on blood glucose elevation than white wheat bread, and over-consumption of such kinds of bread in the diets of diabetics could be a factor that prevents good glycemic control," the Turkish researchers concluded.