So Long LDL
Filed Under Lower cholesterol Remedies |
Several studies have linked the decreased intake of saturated fat and increased consumption of complex carbohydrates with lower .evels of blood cholesterol. In one study, R. James Barnard, M.D., of .he University of California, Los Angeles, analyzed information on al.nost 4,600 people who took part in the Pritikin Longevity Center’s .ifestyle modification program. Forty percent of these individuals had oeen diagnosed with coronary heart disease, while 43 percent had high blood pressure. These men and women all followed a highcomplex-carbohydrate, high-fiber, low-fat, low-cholesterol diet and exercised each day, mainly walking. After three weeks of this diet and exercise regimen, the men’s total and “bad” LDL cholesterol had fallen 24 and 25 percent, respectively, while the women saw their total and LDL cholesterol decline 21 and 19 percent, respectively.
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health branch in Phoenix and the Medlantic Research Foundation in Washington, D.C., put 11 people on one of two diets. The first group followed a diet composed of 65 percent carbohydrates (mostly complex carbohydrates) and 21 percent fat. The second group ate a diet that contained 43 percent carbohydrates and 42 percent fat (mostly saturated fat). Then the groups switched diets. Researchers found that these folks’ total cholesterol was 184 milligrams/deciliter on the high-fat diet, compared with 164 milligrams/deciliter on the carbohydrate-rich diet. Their LDL cholesterol was 125 milligrams/deciliter on the high-fat plan, compared with 108 milligrams/deciliter on the high-carbohydrate program. The probable reason for the decline? “Substituting complex carbs for saturated fat improves the body’s metabolism of LDL, so it’s removed from the blood more rapidly,” theorizes William P. Castelli, M.D., medical director of the Framingham Cardiovascular Institute, a wellness program at Metro West Medical Center in Framingham, Massachusetts.