I would guess one way of avoiding atherosclerosis is to avoid the components of the induced-atherosclerotic diet used in medical research. Below is one which I found. Dairy and sugar seem to top the list.
http://aretha.jax.org/pub-cgi/phenome/mpdcgi?rtn=prodocs/hlb_athero
Analysis:
15% dairy fat
50% sucrose
20% casein
0.5% cholic acid (http://www.greatvistachemicals.com/biochemicals/cholic_acid_cholate.html)
1.0% cholesterol
Preparation:
Components Source For 10 kg:
dairy butter, unsalted Hannaford or Cabot 1845 g
corn oil Mazola or Qualipure 200 mL
sucrose Hannaford (pure granulated) 5000 g
cellulose (Alphacel) 407 g
cholesterol 96 g
sodium cholate 50 g
AIN-76 Mineral Mix 500 g
AIN-76 Vitamin Mix 100 g
DL-methionine 30 g
DL-alpha-tocopherol 13 g
choline chloride (0.5 g/mL) 200 mL
Distilled water ~ 350 mL
Marilyn