Gabe Mirkin, M.D.
An exciting study reported in the Journal of the
American Medical Association (July 23, 2003) shows that a
high-plant diet lowers blood levels of the bad LDL cholesterol as
much as statin drugs do. Forty-six men and women with high blood
cholesterol levels were in the study. Sixteen ate a special vegetarian
diet, 16 consumed a standard low-fat diet, and 14 ate the low-fat
diet and took 20 milligrams of Mevacor every day for a month. The
vegetarian group showed an average drop of 28.6 percent in their
LDL cholesterol. Adding the statin drug Mevacor to the high-plant
diet did not lower cholesterol any more than the nearly 30 percent
reduction achieved with the diet alone. The low fat diet lowered
cholesterol by only eight percent. The high-plant diet included
eggplant, okra, soy protein, almonds, barley, psyllium, and margarine
containing plant sterols. All of these foods have individually been
shown to have potentially beneficial effects on cholesterol.
Two important indicators of heart attack risk are blood
levels of the bad LDL cholesterol and C-reactive protein (CRP).
CRP is a blood marker of inflammation that appears to be even
better as a measure of risk for a heart attack than blood
cholesterol level. The high-vegetable diet lowered both of these
markers as effectively as the popular statin drug, and far more
than a standard low-fat diet.
May 1, 2006