• Home
• Healthy Heart

• Choose text size:
• A
• A
• A

April 13, 2010 | Comments: 1

Two Plant Compounds That Really Do Lower Cholesterol

Sterols and stanols block the absorption of dietary cholesterol. Even government guidelines and the American Heart Association recommend them.

You know the routine: If you have undesirable cholesterol levels, you should try to improve them with diet and exercise. If that doesn’t do the trick, you’ll probably need to take a cholesterol-lowering drug. But there’s a middle step, between diet and drugs, to improve your numbers—plant compounds called sterols and stanols.

Pining for lower cholesterol

Sterols and stanols, chemically similar to cholesterol, interfere with the absorption of dietary cholesterol and have other positive effects on cholesterol regulation. Some plant foods, such as grains and vegetable oils, contain sterols or stanols, but not enough to produce a beneficial effect. Fortified foods supply much higher amounts.

Best known are the margarines Benecol (containing stanols from pine trees) and Promise Activ (with sterols from soybeans), and Minute Maid’s Heart Wise orange juice (sterols). And because of the good buzz, still more foods are being fortified with sterols or stanols.

It doesn’t take a lot

The standard dose of sterols or stanols (2 grams, or 2,000 milligrams, a day) lowers LDL (“bad”) cholesterol by 9 to 20%. The government’s cholesterol guidelines and the American Heart Association recommend foods fortified with sterols/stanols. There are also sterol and stanol supplements, which vary in composition and dosage. The FDA allows the labels on foods or supplements to claim they reduce the risk of heart disease if they supply at least 400 milligrams of sterols per serving or dose, for a daily total of at least 800 milligrams. The amount of reduction can vary considerably; older people tend to have larger drops. Results may be seen in as little as two weeks.

Words to the wise

• Check the labels to see how much you should eat to get 2 grams of sterols or stanols a day. Two cups of fortified OJ or two tablespoons of margarine supply about this much.

• Watch out for calories. Those two cups of OJ (fortified or not) supply 220 calories; the recommended two tablespoons of margarine, 140 to 160 calories (“light” versions about 100 calories).

• Sterols and stanols slightly reduce absorption of beta carotene and other carotenoids from fruits and vegetables. Though not all studies have found this, it can’t hurt to eat more of these foods—notably carrots, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and apricots.

Read more on this topic