Cholesterol-lowering drugs in food questionable

Margarine questionable about high cholesterol

29/04/2011

The food industry has been promoting health-promoting functional foods for years. For example, some food companies offer margarine or „healthy yogurts“ with herbal sterols, which are said to lower cholesterol and protect the cardiovascular system. Health experts and scientists doubt the alleged health benefits of the plant compound in „functional foods“. In fact, to make an effect, people would have to consume tons of the phytochemicals. These vast quantities in turn produce enormous health risks.

Not only no benefit, but also health hazards
Herbal sterols or phytosterols, which are fortified with various foods such as margarine or dairy products, not only have no proven health benefits to the heart, but may even have negative consequences. At the 77th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Cardiology, Cardiovascular Research (DGK), scientists demanded more scientific studies on the efficacy and safety of these food-enriched substances. One reason scientists doubt the usefulness of plant sterol fortified foods is that there is no evidence that the potential cholesterol lowering effects of phytosterols provide measurable benefits to heart health. „Statins inhibit HMG-CoA reductase, the rate-limiting enzyme in the body's own cholesterol synthesis in the liver, thereby lowering blood cholesterol.“ Although larger studies have shown the effectiveness of statins in terms of cardiovascular disease risk a positive effect, but are for the concept of „Cholesterol absorption inhibition by food supplementation with phytosterols“ no reliable study results, as Dr. Oliver Weingärtner from the University of Saarland, Homburg / Saar reported. „By contrast, the concept of cholesterol absorption inhibition by food supplementation with phytosterols does not provide any reliable study results that demonstrate efficacy with regard to patient-relevant clinical endpoints, such as stroke or heart attack risk.“

Doubt on the dose
Certain doubts arise above all with the dose. To get a positive effect, consumers would need two grams and more per day of sterols to reduce cholesterol levels by ten percent. „In order to achieve this over fruits and vegetables, for example, 425 tomatoes, 150 apples, or 11 cups of peanuts would have to be eaten during the day.“, so Dr. Weingartner. If so-called functional foods were enriched with such an amount, this would not correspond to the approach of one „healthy diet“, so Prof. dr. Ulrich Laufs (Saarland University, Homburg / Saar): „Then it is a measure that is comparable to a drug, and accordingly you have to deal with it carefully.“

Health hazards due to deposits
There is a likelihood of a health hazard, as a series of scientific studies have suggested that phytosterols that accumulate in the body may even have negative effects on the heart and blood vessels. An animal experiment showed that plant substances accumulate permanently in the brain. „Because of the indications of risks and lack of evidence of a beneficial effect, further data on efficacy and safety are required before recommending foods containing phytosterols“, so Dr. Weingartner.

Scientists at the Leipzig University Clinic also recently advised caution in functional foods, as phytosterols endanger their health for a proportion of the population that should not be underestimated. A study had shown that there was a connection between the transport of plant sterols and possible ene. People with a certain genetic predisposition can excrete vegetable fat less well. This circumstance raises the level of sterol in the body and increases the risk of having a heart attack. According to research, people with blood types A, B and AB are prone to increased sterol levels. (Sb)

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