New Study Shows Vegetarian Diet Lowers Cholesterol

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.. New Study Shows Vegetarian Diet Lowers Cholesterol

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Heart-Diet.html

 

MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA, March 7, 2003: A new vegetarian diet emphasizing soy

and soluble fiber can lower cholesterol by one-third. The Portfolio diet, as

it's called, involves several trendy nutrients that have been shown

separately to be good for the heart. Canadian researchers set out to see

what would happen if they were combined into a single regimen. At a meeting

of the American Heart Association, data was presented that established the

combination seems to work. Ordinarily, people do well to lower their

cholesterol by 10 percent by changing their diet, so doctors often have to

prescribe powerful statin drugs to get their cholesterol down far enough.

"The reductions are surprising," said Cyril Kendall of the University of

Toronto, who directed the study. "Most dietitians would not expect that sort

of reduction through dietary means." He said the Portfolio diet appears to

do about as well as the older statin drugs that are still front-line therapy

for high cholesterol. The diet is based on a low-fat vegetarian regimen that

emphasizes foods shown individually to be beneficial -- soy, soluble fiber,

plant sterols and almonds. Sources of soluble fiber include oats, barley,

legumes, eggplant, okra and Metamucil. Some brands of margarine are high in

plant sterols.

 

 

 

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