Study: Tofu, Oatmeal Lower Cholesterol
By BETH DUFF-BROWN, Associated Press Writer
Tue Mar 14, 7:26 PMUPDATED 1 DAY 4 HOURS 25 MINUTES AGO
TORONTO - Maybe your doctor should write up a grocery list to help lower
your cholesterol, suggests a small study that showed a rigid diet seemed as
effective as cholesterol-lowering pills.
Of course, sticking to that diet may not be easy.
"People interested in lowering their cholesterol should probably acquire a
taste for tofu and oatmeal," said study co-author David Jenkins of the
University of Toronto.
The study, published this month in the American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition, was funded in part by almond promoters and a major food company.
Jenkins, Canadian research chair in metabolism and nutrition at Toronto, and
Dr. Cyril Kendall, also of the University of Toronto, studied 55 middle-aged
men and women who had high cholesterol and were at risk for heart disease.
The participants were already on a heart-healthy diet. They were then
prescribed a diet that included more specific foods, such as raw almonds,
tofu and other soy foods, viscous fibers such as oatmeal, barley, okra and
eggplant, and plant sterol-enriched margarine.
After a year, the group who stuck faithfully to the new eating plan lowered
their cholesterol by an average of 29 percent. Jenkins said the rate was
comparable to results from participants who had taken a statin drug for one
month before starting the diet, as well as general studies of patients on
such drugs.
The group of participants who did not follow the diet as strictly still
lowered their cholesterol by 10 percent to 20 percent. "That's still pretty
good, and the point is, the more closely you follow the diet, the better you
do," said Kendall.
Cholesterol for those who didn't stick to the new diet remained about the
same.
The soy, nut and fiber diet is promoted by the Almond Board of California,
which helped fund the study along with Unilever. Unilever makes Take Control
margarine, a cholesterol-lowering spread that's available in the United
States, Europe and Australia, but not Canada.
The diet includes low-fat dairy products, smaller portions of lean meats and
skinless poultry and substituting soy products for animal foods when
possible. The more dieters combine foods rich in viscous fiber _ oat bran,
barley, okra and eggplant _ as well as raw almonds, peanuts and walnuts, the
more their cholesterol dropped, according to the study.
Dr. Alice H. Lichtenstein, a professor of public health and nutrition at
Tufts University in Boston, said the study was scientifically solid, but the
diet is so strict she believes most North Americans would find it hard to
follow in the real world.
"It's a great diet and they started with a very motivated group of
individuals who were used to consuming a low-fat or vegetarian diet,"
Lichtenstein said in a telephone interview. "But I think that for the
general population, we have to be realistic _ and it's unlikely that they're
going to be able to adhere to something like this."
That mind-set is what Jenkins hopes to change.
The real world is "a relatively hostile place" when it comes to healthy
eating, he said. "We're asking people to buck the trend."
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The diet: http://www.portfolioeatingplan.com
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