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January 28, 2022 – What if you can lower your cholesterol by eating foods you like?
A new study shows that when people are asked to eat “hedonically acceptable” snacks that contain ingredients known to lower cholesterol, almost everyone does.
In contrast, only about half of people asked to change their diet significantly to lower cholesterol followed the diet in a previous study.
No diet lowers “bad” cholesterol as much as statin drugs, but special ingredients in delicious snacks “can quickly and significantly reduce LDL cholesterol in adult patients who can’t or don’t want to take statin drugs,” according to the study. .
Posted in INNutrition magazinethe experiment was done by researchers from the Mayo Clinic, the University of Manitoba and the Richardson Center for Functional Foods and Nutrients in Canada.
The researchers hired 59 people to participate in the study, although five dropped out. This left 18 men and 36 women with a mean age of 49 years, who were placed in therapeutic and control groups.
There were two treatment periods of 4 weeks each, separated by a wash period of the same duration. During the treatment phases, participants were told to eat a variety of ready-made snacks twice a day as a substitute for something they already ate. Other changes in behavior were discouraged.
People in both groups could choose snacks from six products that were identically packaged and coded by Step One Foods of Minneapolis, which took part in the study. These foods include oatmeal, pancakes, cranberries, chocolate bars, smoothies and granola.
The treatment team received modified versions of these snacks, which include ingredients that have been shown to improve heart health. The control products were similar items from grocery stores and supermarkets. For example, the standard muesli purchased from the store was the control for the granola tested, and the portion size was adjusted to have the same number of calories.
Lower cholesterol, higher compliance
LDL cholesterol was reduced by an average of about 8.8% in those who received modified snacks, and some participants had reductions of 20% or more. Total cholesterol was reduced by an average of 5.1% with treatment foods compared to control snacks. However, concentrations of HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, serum glucose, insulin and highly sensitive C-reactive protein did not differ significantly between controls.
The vegan portfolio portfolio, which also delivers high concentrations of fiber and plants, has been shown to help reduce LDL cholesterol by 17% when combined with a nationally approved cholesterol education program. However, “because so much of the diet needs to be controlled, consumer compliance is poor,” according to a new study.
In particular, the percentage of people who adhere to the diet is less than 50%, says co-author of the study for breakfast Stephen L. Kopetsky, MD, professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic. In contrast, the compliance of the people in the new study was 95% with the treated food and 96.5% with the control food.
Statins have a much greater effect than any diet on lowering cholesterol. For example, in the snack treatment group, LDL cholesterol dropped by about a third of the reduction that can be achieved by taking statins.
Kopetsky believes that people who eat these snacks regularly can further lower their LDL cholesterol. But he sees this type of diet as a supplement to statins, not as a substitute.
The greatest immediate value of this approach, he says, would be to help people who are unwilling or unable to take statins. He estimates that this includes 15% -20% of patients whose cholesterol is high enough to deserve a statin prescription. Since nearly 40% of Americans are at risk for heart disease due to high cholesterol, so are many people.
In the long run, Kopecki hopes the food industry will supply more foods that really lower cholesterol, instead of just claiming to do so. But food companies are following what the market wants, he said. Americans are unlikely to eat more healthy foods than they do now; in fact, they get 57% of their calories from over-processed foods such as frozen dinners and chips. So perhaps changing the content, but not the taste, of some of these foods would have a positive effect, he suggested.
“If the food industry follows this guide and people start eating these foods and you could reduce cholesterol by 10% across the country, it would have huge health consequences,” he said.
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