|
Think about cholesterol and you'll probably picture the bad-for-you
foods: butter-drenched pastas and greasy potato chips; foods loaded
with saturated fats and trans-fats (those "hydrogenated"
and "partially hydrogenated" villains that abound in snack
foods). But some foods can actually help lower your LDL. They're
called functional foods or nutraceuticals—foodstuffs that have
medicinal effects. Butter substitutes such as olive and canola oils,
for example, are rich in HDL-raising and LDL-lowering monounsaturated
fats. Soluble fiber—oat bran, psyllium, pectin, and the like—will
bind to and remove cholesterol from your digestive tract.
Functional foods don't have a perfect track record—recent
studies have cast serious doubt on whether such much-hyped nutritional
darlings as vitamin E, beta carotene, and garlic provide any plaque-busting
benefits at all—but they tend to be safe, devoid of side effects,
and beneficial for more than just your heart. Even better, they
tend to have additive effects. That is, if you're on a pharmaceutical
regimen, supplementing your diet with these items can further improve
your lipid profile (or allow you to achieve the same results with
a lower dose of your medication). A few of the most promising functional
foods you may not have heard of:
MEDICAL MARGARINES
Originally pioneered in Finland, margarines such as Benecol and
Take Control are made from plant-derived chemicals called stanols
and sterols that closely mimic the structure of cholesterol. By
so doing, they fool the intestines into absorbing less of the real
stuff. Studies in Finland, the Netherlands, and elsewhere have shown
up to 14 percent LDL reduction without any effect on HDL or triglycerides;
this effect occurs even if you are on other cholesterol-lowering
drugs like statins. The downside: They're significantly more expensive
than traditional margarines. They're also high in calories, and
you'll need two or three 1-gram pats per day to see a benefit.
CHAMPION CHOCOLATES
A growing cadre of researchers believe that phenols—plant-based
antioxidants—promote heart health when consumed regularly.
The suspected mechanism: They appear to prevent oxidation of bad-for-you
LDL—which can clog the arteries. One team of researchers at
the University of California, Davis, recently found that the phenols
in a 12-ounce glass of apple juice inhibit LDL oxidation by 20 percent
after six weeks. Tea, red wine, and apples are all excellent sources,
but so is chocolate. Researchers at U.C. Davis recently determined
that 1.5 ounces of milk chocolate has roughly the same amount of
the powerful phenols found in a glass of oft-touted red wine. Renowned
medical journal The Lancet also recently reported that chocolate
is a better source for these compounds than green tea. Just remember
to consume chocolate in moderation—it's still loaded with calories
and fat.
WONDER WAX
Originally pioneered as a cholesterol treatment in Cuba, over a
dozen subsequent clinical trials overseas suggest that policosanol—a
naturally occurring waxy substance extracted from beeswax and sugar
cane—can indeed improve lipids significantly by lowering LDL
by 20-25 percent while modestly boosting HDL. How policosanol works
is not well understood, but researchers believe it inhibits cholesterol
production by the liver and also increases the uptake of LDL from
the bloodstream into body cells. Unlike statin drugs, policosanol
has not been linked to muscle or liver problems. It takes up to
12 weeks, however, for policosanol to work. It's sold as a dietary
supplement in pill form by a variety of companies.
SUPER SOY
A comparison of multiple studies on soy protein published in the
New England Journal of Medicine concluded that a regular diet of
tofu, soy milk, soy protein powder, and similar products can lower
LDL cholesterol by 12.9 percent. How soy protein does this is not
clear, but researchers believe the effect derives from more than
just substituting soy protein for animal protein in the diet. There
are no known side effects, but you need to consume about 25 to 50
grams per day to see improvements.
Source: AARP
Modern Maturity
|
