Plant Sterols

What role do plant sterols play in lowering cholesterol?
Plant sterols have been known for their cholesterol-lowering properties for over 50 years. Although we all consume plant sterols every day in our diet, the amount we eat is typically not enough to have a cholesterol lowering effect.

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What quantity of plant sterols do I need to lower cholesterol?

Eating 25g of plant sterols every day has been proven to significantly lower LDL (‘bad’) cholesterol by up to 15% in just 3 weeks. That’s why international dietary guidelines for cholesterol management recommend consuming 2g of plant sterols per day. Consuming more than 2g does not result in additional cholesterol-lowering effects.

Plant sterols – lowering cholesterol through diet

As part of a healthy balanced diet, eating plant sterols-enriched foods is one of the most effective ways to lower cholesterol without medication. Raised cholesterol is still one of the major risk factors for coronary heart disease. Fortunately, you can improve your cholesterol levels by eating a sensible diet and maintaining a healthy lifestyle with regular physical activity.

How do plant sterols lower cholesterol?

Plant sterols actively remove cholesterol from your body by partly blocking the absorption of cholesterol in the gut(digestive tract). The cholesterol that is not absorbed is removed from your body, resulting in a lowering of total LDL (‘bad’) cholesterol levels.

Getting 2g of plant sterols daily

To make it easy to eat more plant sterols, they have been added to everyday foods, such as Flora pro-activ. Although it is good for your heart to eat lots of fruit and vegetables, you would need to eat 50 portions of broccoli, 150 apples or 425 tomatoes to consume 2g of plant sterols.