Better results with cholesterol-lowering food combo - Yahoo! News

Better results with cholesterol-lowering food combo - Yahoo! News: "Making certain dietary changes, such as consuming cholesterol-lowering foods in combination rather than separately, may be as effective as some prescription drugs for certain patients with high cholesterol, according to new study findings.

'A diet can be much more effective than originally thought, in terms of lowering cholesterol,' Dr. Cyril W. C. Kendall, of the University of Toronto in Canada, told Reuters Health." ..............

Their findings are based on 55 study participants who consumed a diet with high levels of plant sterols, soy protein, viscous fibers (found in oats, barley and eggplant) and almonds.

At 3-month and 12-month follow-up, study participants exhibited an average 14 percent and 13 percent reduction, respectively, in levels of the "bad" LDL-cholesterol, the investigators report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

What's more, over 30 percent of the study participants lowered their LDL-cholesterol by more than 20 percent by the end of the study period, a reduction comparable to that seen among patients taking older formulations of statin drugs, the researchers note.