Cholesterol-Lowering Foods Equally Effective to Statins

TORONTO--Consuming a wide range of cholesterol-lowering foods may be more effective than consuming them individually and may exert the same health impact as treatment with statin drugs. Researchers from St. Michael's Hospital and the University of Toronto assessed the effectiveness of consuming a combination of cholesterol-lowering foods (dietary portfolio) in real world settings.

In this new study, 66 hyperlipidemic participants were prescribed diets high in plant sterols (1.0 g/1,000 kcal), soy protein (22.5 g/1,000 kcal), viscous fibers (10 g/1,000 kcal) and almonds (23 g/1,000 kcal); 55 participants completed the one-year intervention. The data were also compared with published results on 29 of the participants who had undergone separate one-month metabolic trials comparing the impact of the portfolio diet and a statin.

At three months and one year, mean low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol reductions were stable at 14.0 ± 1.6 percent and 12.8 ± 2.0 percent, respectively. The reductions were less than those observed in the one-month for the diet and the statin. However, 31.8 percent of participants had LDL cholesterol reductions of greater than 20 percent at one year. A correlation was found between total dietary adherence and LDL cholesterol change; only two of the 26 participants with less than half the compliance achieved greater than 20 percent reductions in LDL cholesterol after one year.

The researchers concluded more than 30 percent of "motivated" participants who consumed the dietary portfolio for one year under real-world conditions were able to lower their LDL cholesterol concentrations by more than 20 percent, which was similar to the impact of a first-generation statin taken under metabolically-controlled conditions.

The study appeared in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (83, 3:582-91, 2006). Additional support was provided by Unilever and the Almond Board of California.