Benefits of dietary phytosterols

Abstract

Evaluation of: Wang P, Chen Y-M, He LP etal. Association of natural intake of dietary plant sterols with carotid intima–media thickness and blood lipids in Chinese adults: a cross-section study. Plos ONE 7(3), e32736 (2012). Dietary intake of naturally occurring plant sterols has been demonstrated to be inversely related to serum total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol levels, but it is unknown whether the plant sterols affect carotid intima–media thickness. In the present study, dietary intake of plant sterols was assessed based on dietary questionnaires and related to serum lipids and carotid intima–media thickness in a cross-sectional study of 3940 Chinese subjects. Total plant sterol intake was inversely associated with serum total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol level in both genders, and this was dose dependent. The multivariate adjusted means of serum total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol levels in the highest quartile of plant sterol intake (447 mg/day) decreased by 5.0 (p > 0.001) and 6.2% (p = 0.002) in women, and by 6.4 (p > 0.05) and 7.1% (p > 0.05) in men, respectively. HDL-cholesterol and serum triglycerides were not related to the plant sterol intake. Only the left internal carotid intima–media thickness decreased slightly in men and women in relation to plant sterol intake (7.6 and 5.1%, respectively; p < 0.05).