Foods that can Reduce Cholesterol
Nov 25th, 2008 by Giselle
Most people are looking to cut down on foods that increase their cholesterol – and rightly so! But how about adding some foods in your diet that can actually reduce your cholesterol?
In this article I will show you what they are and give you some scientific background on how they were discovered and how they work.
Hi, interesting article! Nice to see that instead of just reducing cholesterol intake, I can also eat some proactive cholesterol reducers. I have some questions thogh – what is Promise Activ and where do I find it? Do you recommend fortified products (like that fortified margarine), or is it better to go for natural products?
Thanks,
James
Hi James,
The Promise Active range of products are currently only available in the US but I believe they will soon be available in Australia due to the high demand for sterol-enriched products. Fortified margarines are recommended for use in place of vegetable oil due to their superior plant sterol content. As you can see, to meet the minimum daily allowance for plant sterol, one must consume at least 1 tbspn of margarine. This is possible if one learns to cook with margarine e.g. grill fish or grill small hamburger patties with margarine. Alternatively, make up a salad with wheatgerm oil and balsamic vinegar to boost your plant sterol intake. The beneficial effect of plant sterols is greatest when there is most cholesterol in the gut. Therefore plant sterol rich foods are best eaten with cholesterol-rich meals (for example meals with meat, butter, liver, offal, sausage, small goods) usually at dinner time. This is where plant sterols exhibit competitive advantage by out competing animal cholesterol for absorption thereby reducing blood cholesterol levels!
Great article! Can you tell me what the plant sterol content of kelp and other seaweeds actually is?
Hi Mel,
Common seaweeds used in Japanese cooking like kombu (Laminaria spp.) and nori (Porphyra spp.) are commonly referred to as “functional foods” or “super foods”. They are rich in iron, calcium, B12, selenium, fibre and sterols. The sterol content of seaweeds vary very widely from genus to genus. For instance, the sterol content of brown seaweed can range from 662-2320 µg/g (microgram per gram of) dry weight. The major component of this sterol is known as fucosterol which contitutes between 83-97% of the total sterol. Red seaweeds however have a sterol content of 187-337µg/g (microgram/gram of) dry weight. The prime sterol in red seaweed is demosterol which constitutes between 87%-93% of the total sterol. Brown seaweeds have much higher sterol content and can be eaten frequently in your diet to boost your sterol intake and help lower your blood cholesterol level. Hope this answers your question.
Hi! There is a great deal of information in this field which the general public seems to believe and follow without question, thinking that MDs, scientific and technical writers have the answers when many are just repeating the literature provided by the pharmaceutical and herbal remedy industries. Do large doses of plant sterols (and specifically their esters) lower cholesterol serum levels, yes, of course they do, but why then are plaques containing sitosterol and stigmasterol found in conjunction with cholesterol in those plaques in people with heart disease or atherosclerosis, after they have changed their diets? (Cholesterol monohydrate is the major sterol component found in gall stones and arterial plaques.) The answer is complicated and I can only give the basics here. First, for the record, it is primarily the sterol esters which are taken up by the gut and not all plant derived oils have the same proportion of free and esterified sterols. Free sterols, including cholesterol, are initially absorbed in the gut, but are subsequently returned to the lower intestine and are excreted with the faeces in levels up to 50% of the daily sterol intake. This limited uptake of plant sterols in the diet explains why large doses (Health warning! Do not take excessive amounts please!) of plant sterols only reduce serum cholesterol by 5-10%. Drugs may be able to increase this percentage. Using these combined solutions the total amounts of serum cholesterol and its esters are lowered. However, that may be misleading if some plant sterols have physical properties similar to those of cholesterol since once they are deacylated, they may still immiscible and will be deposited as arterial plaques and as gall stones. Thus, the tests themselves only measure the serum cholesterol level, not the total serum sterol concentration. If the plant sterols can still form plaques, the patient may be reassured by the lower number, but are those people any better off if they are consuming plant sterols in their diets? This is a question which is being asked in the sterol nutraceutical and pharmaceutical literature at the moment and I am not going to answer that one here! Suffice it to say that scientific professionals are working on the problem and are trying to find sterol derivatives that have a greater effect on serum cholesterol levels than existing sterol ester nutriceuticals.
In the meantime, what is the best course to follow? Clearly diet has a role in this medical problem, but in adding more fruit and vegetables to a persons diet and reducing the amount of red meat in favour of nuts and twigs, you are also changing the composition of the diet to one containing omega-3 fatty acids, glycoflavonoids, numerous antioxidants and fibre. Interestingly, the Japanese and Eskimos who have fewer heart related problems, eat fewer vegetables and their diet is high in polyunsaturated fish oils. The average urban Joe has assumed (on professional advice), that supplementing the diet with such oils or the fatty acids will help reduce heart related problems. Presently, the efficacy of these supplements is less certain as better directed trials are performed. The problems may simply be that in eating so many refined foods (supplements included), we may be cutting out key molecules which have the desired heart healthy and other beneficial effects. Thus study A which used ultra-refined seed oil from company X, may have fewer bits floating in it, but will not be as effective as that used in study B which was supplied in unrefined form by company Y. This is not a vote in favour of organic farming, etc., but simply an exercise in the kind of lateral thinking which is missing in approaches which are driven by the need to publish pdq to obtain the mighty $$$!
PS, sorry to all of you chaps who are half way through a study and didn’t think about this and, of course, to any pharmaceutical companies out there in the crazy business world…….. 😀
Dear Dr. Mannock,
Thanks very much for your invaluable and informative comment. You have certainly addressed the complicated cholesterol puzzle from several interesting angles, all of which are perfectly valid.
You are totally right in stating that there is still a lot out there that we do not know. For now, we can only chart the best course given what we know. Hence, the best way forward could be to take the pertinent information from scientific researches and combine them with a good dose of common sense. In response to your comment, I have written an article – Ways to Reduce Blood Cholesterol Levels to complement your input. This article will be published shortly.
Fundamentally, there is no single magic bullet for the reduction of serum cholesterol levels (the most commonly prescribed drug – Lipitor or statin, comes closest to the definition of a magic bullet but even this has its draw backs, a discussion fit for another article). In conclusion, there does not appear to be a magic bullet available in the near future. Currently, a multi-prong approach involving dietary changes, exercise, reducing visceral fat (abdominal), keeping in the healthy weight range, drugs and herbs remain the most effective cholesterol lowering methods.
Nice post. I was checking continuously this blog and I
I care for such info much. I was looking for this certain information for a
am impressed! Extremely useful information specifically
the last part
long time. Thank you and best of luck.