Colquhoun has been a keen advocate of a Mediterranean diet since beginning his research a decade ago. Based the traditional diet of the people of Greece, the staples of which are olive oil, rough bread, fetta cheese and plenty of organically grown fruit and vegetables, this diet is low in saturated fat but high in monounsaturated fat which comes almost entirely from olive oil. But most Western people find it difficult to adhere to a very low-fat diet in the long term. He points out that fat adds taste and texture and that there is no need to make life miserable with bland poverty food. Like olive oil, they are high in oleic acid.
Nuts contain unsaturated fat, soluble fibre and anti-oxidant vitamins.
Also the vegetable protein in nuts tends to be cholesterol lowering and has an independent effect in preventing cholesterol build-up ion the blood vessel walls. Avocados have been found by Colquhoun to be similarly beneficial.