Changing your diet can be animportant step in lowering yourcholesterol. In fact, one studyshowed that certain foods eatenin combination are as effectiveas powerful, cholesterol-loweringmedicines called statins.
All the people in the studyate a low-fat diet. They also atethese four types of food daily:
- 1 gram of margarineenriched with plant sterols
- About 10 grams of oats, barley,psyllium, okra, or eggplant
- 22.5 grams of soy milk orsoy protein
- 23 grams of whole almonds
Eating these foods led, onaverage, to about a 13% drop inLDL, or “bad,” cholesterol, whichlasted over a one-year period.And, about one-third of subjectslowered their LDL by 20% ormore. That’s about the sameeffect seen with statins.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,Vol. 83, No. 3