Effect of a diet based on low-fat foods enriched with nonesterified plant sterols and mineral nutrients on serum cholesterol

Plant sterols have been incorporated into nutritional fats to achieve cholesterol lowering, but studies using enrichment of low-fat foods with plant sterols have not been reported. Our study was aimed at determining the effect of dietary intake of low-fat foods containing natural nonesterified plant sterols together with recommended doses of calcium, magnesium, and potassium on serum cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol-lowering in persons with mild to moderate hypercholesterolemia. This was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled feeding trial lasting 15 weeks and performed in 2 university hospital centers. Seventy-eight subjects aged 25 to 75 years with serum cholesterol concentrations varying between 6 mmol/L (232 mg/dl) and 8 mmol/L (310 mg/dl) were randomly allocated to active treatment consisting of intake of bread, meat products, and jam enriched with 1.25 to 5.0 g/day of plant sterols and the slightly elevated concentrations of mineral nutrients, or the corresponding placebo food and calculated LDL cholesterol concentrations were determined. Seventy-one persons completed the trial. Reduction in serum total cholesterol was 8% in the active treatment group and 3% in the placebo group (p=0.0071) and that of LDL cholesterol was 13% in the active treatment group and 5% in the placebo group (p=0.0070). In conclusion, natural nonesterified plant sterols contained in low-fat food items and ingested in moderate doses reduced serum total and LDL cholesterol concentrations to the same extent as reported previously for esterified plant sterol derivatives added to nutritional fats. The presence of mineral nutrients in doses recommended for blood pressure-lowering did not interfere with the cholesterol-lowering efficacy of the sterols, providing a promising approach to dietary prevention of cardiovascular diseases. (C) 2001 by Excerpto Medica, Inc.