Cholesterol-Lowering Foods Manage LDL Levels Effectively

Adding cholesterol-lowering foods to your diet, can drop levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol more than a low-fat diet alone can, a new study suggests.

Foods with plant sterols have known cholesterol-lowering properties, and, when combined with a lower fat diet, they can drop bad cholesterol by over 13 percent. A low-fat diet resulted in only a three percent reduction in LDL.

“Giving people a diet enriched with food components that the FDA has already allowed health claims to be made for, based on their cholesterol-lowering ability, lowered their LDL cholesterol between 13 and 14 percent,” Dr. David J.A. Jenkins, the Canada Research Chair in Nutrition, Metabolism and Vascular Biology at the University of Toronto, told HealthDay News.

Jenkins noted that the people involved in the study were already “diet-interested,” and tended to have above-average diets. “The extra effort of choosing the right foods had a very good effect,” he said.

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Tagged American Heart Association, cholesterol-lowering foods, Dr. David J.A. Jenkins, enhanced margarines, Nutrition Metabolism and Vascular Biology, oats and barley, peanuts, plant sterols, soy meat substitutes, soy milk, tofu, tree nuts, viscous fiber