re 'fluffy particles being benign ' , we read it so often, unfortunately it doesn't appear to be true. It isn't a question of conventional and 'low carb alternative' ideas. Some studies seemed to show this a few years back and the idea took hold and was repeated in blog after blo.
Dr Dayspring in the article I linked to early in the thread is succinct saying this idea is:
"
Total nonsense as is pointed out below "
Basically scientific research has moved on and demonstrated that this was a false reading of the situation. Researchers had missed a confounding factor (partly because of techniques that were available. ) They didn't count the number of particles, they just measured size. It's the number, not the size of them that appears to matter.
Both large and small LDL particles have been found to be associated with sub clinical atherosclerosis (ie the early stages)
If two people have the same LDL but one has larger particles then they will have actually fewer particles. That's fine with levels within the norms. If however, you have very much higher LDL than the norm , even if that LDL includes a proportion of large particles, you may still have a greater number of them than someone with an LDL closer to the norm
http://www.athero.org/commentaries/comm564.pdf
This paper isn't that easy (none of them are because of the subject matter.) There is though a good diagram after the page of references which shows exactly what is meant.
@donnellysdogs
You might be interested in the dietary advice for the Med diet as used in the recent Predimed trial
p 9 onwards,
http://www.nejm.org/doi/suppl/10.1056/NEJMoa1200303/suppl_file/nejmoa1200303_appendix.pdf
also here are some general guidelines and a pyramid (although I have to say the typical US comment on wine intake made me laugh.
http://oldwayspt.org/resources/heritage-pyramids/mediterranean-pyramid/overview