LDL Cholesterol, How To Lower It Easily.

LDL cholesterol is the one that causes all the problems associated with a high cholesterol level. The good news is it can easily be lowered with the use of plant sterols, let me explain.

Plant sterols have similar cellular functions in plants to that of cholesterol in humans. To date more than 40 plant sterols have been discovered with stigmasterol, sitosterol, and campesterol being the most widely available.

Stanols are very simply saturated sterols and the major ones are sitostanol and campestanol, these are much harder to come by than sterols.

There are a number of foods on the shelves these days that have stanols or sterols added. There are a number of margarines on the market at the time of writing that can help lower the levels of cholesterol in the bloodstream by reducing the amount of cholesterol the intestines absorb.

The average person consumes around 200 to maybe 300 mg of plant sterols everyday as part of an average diet. However, research shows that it takes around 2 grams per day to achieve the desired cholesterol lowering effect.

The average person in the U.S consumes between 10-15 grams of spreads like margarine and butter each and every day. Therefore all a person need do is increase the level of margarine consumed to 25 grams a day, and as long as it is a margarine that is enriched with stanols and / or sterols the ideal amount of 2 grams a day is maintained.

If you can replace butter with ordinary polyunsaturated margarine then you can lower your blood LDL cholesterol level by around 12 mg/dl, but if you substitute butter for a margarine rich in plant stanols and /or sterols you can lower your LDL cholesterol levels by as much as 27 mg/dl! This will have the effect of reducing the chances of you developing heart disease by a fourth!

There are a fair few margarines on the market at the time of writing that contain the desired plant stanols and/ or sterols. A few of note are “Benecol” and “Take Control”, these have proven to be popular in the U.S There are also a number of yoghurt appearing on the market as are cream cheese spreads and even various cereal bars.

Most products containing the desired ingredients have a label stating this in plain view but if you are unsure just look at the ingredients and you will find the contents listed there.

There has been some research to suggest that the consumption of plant stanols / sterols may go some way to interfering with the absorption of the oil soluble vitamins A,D,E,K but this has yet to be conclusively proven. If this is the case the slight deficiency produced would be easily made up with the intake of some select fruits and vegetables.

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