Food Combo as Good as Cholesterol Drugs

posted 01/07/02

You really can eat your way to heart health. A combination of cholesterol-busting foods offers as much heart protection as cholesterol-lowering drugs, a Canadian study finds.

Earlier studies have shown that four types of food can each lower cholesterol by 5-10%. The new study -- the first to try all four at once -- shows that these effects add up. After eating all of these foods for a month, study participants dropped their "bad" LDL cholesterol levels by 29%. For most of them, this meant the difference between high and normal levels.

"Instead of just using a diet with just one component we thought, 'Let's put them all together and see if we can do better,'" study leader David J.A. Jenkins, MD, tells WebMD. Jenkins is director of the clinical nutrition and risk factor modification center at St. Michael's Hospital and professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Thirteen otherwise healthy, slightly overweight men and women with high cholesterol levels took part in the experiment. They already were on the low-saturated-fat, low-cholesterol diet recommended by the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

Their diet had four components:

• Soy-based. "We were looking at soy-based meat substitutes such as soy burgers, soy hot dogs, and soy cold cuts," Jenkins says. "And we also used soy milk as a dairy substitute."
• Sticky fiber. Study patients used the natural psyllium product Metamucil -- many used it to thicken their soy milk -- and ate oat-bran cereal and barley-based soups.
• Plant-sterol enriched margarine. This Unilever product is sold in the U.S. as Take Control and in other countries as Becel/Flora pro.activ.
• Nuts. Study patients ate a handful of almonds every day.

These foods were part of a seven-day diet plan using foods available in supermarkets and health-food stores. The foods included vegetables such as broccoli, carrots, red peppers, tomato, onions, cauliflower, okra, and eggplant. A typical day on the diet offered a breakfast of soy milk, oat-bran cereal with chopped fruit and almonds, oatmeal bread, sterol-enriched margarine, and jam. Lunch might be soy cold cuts, oat-bran bread, bean soup, and fruit. Dinner might be a stir-fry dinner with vegetables, tofu, fruit, and almonds. Snack foods would include nuts, yogurt, and soy milk thickened with Metamucil.

The drop in the study participants' cholesterol level was almost entirely due to a drop in "bad" LDL cholesterol. This drop was roughly the same as that seen by patients taking the cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins. Jenkins speculates that patients with very high cholesterol could add statins to get an even better effect. They could also reduce high statin doses by adding these foods to a low-fat/low-cholesterol diet, he suggests.

These results greatly impress Gene Spiller, PhD, director of the Sphera Foundation and Health Research and Studies Center, Los Altos, Calif. Spiller is co-author (with John W. Farquhar, MD) of the book Diagnosis: Heart Disease, a guide to a heart-healthy lifestyle. Spiller says Jenkins's study provides hard evidence for what he's been saying for years.

"It is very important what Dr. Jenkins is doing now. It is a crucial idea to combine these dietary elements," Spiller tells WebMD. "Most researchers want to know what such-and-such food does, so they study it in isolation. But they are really missing the boat. The fact these things are additive is the greatest and most important idea."

To get the maximum anti-cholesterol effect, a person would have to eat several portions of each type of cholesterol-lowering food every day. It would also be important to stay away from animal fats, foods with high levels of saturated fats, and foods high in cholesterol. But Jenkins and Spiller each say that those who can't make this kind of lifestyle change can still lower their cholesterol levels by doing as much as they can.

"My advice is try a little of all of these foods," Jenkins says. "A few nuts are never a bad thing -- just a handful of almonds is enough. Try some of the soy foods -- soy milk with your breakfast cereal and soy substitutes for meat. Try oat bran, it is a good breakfast. And try a few things on a cold day like vegetable barley soup. Try incorporating these things into your diet little by little. Ease your way in and find the foods you like and eat them more often. If you do that each day, have one or two and build up, you should get a measurable effect on your cholesterol levels."

Source: WebMD Health.

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