High cholesterol: The creamy food which could lower levels by around 10%

Why cholesterol is bad for you

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Almost 40 percent of the Britons have high or borderline high levels of “bad” cholesterol, according to Forth. It can be difficult to spot the warning signs as cholesterol doesn’t cause many symptoms. One way to lower your levels is by shifting your diet. And opting for a certain creamy food could help.

There are various ways to lower cholesterol, including diet and exercise.

One food component to add to your cholesterol-lowering routine could be butter enriched with plant sterols.

Plant sterols, also known as phytosterol, naturally occur in all plants, the National Heart Foundation of Australia Foods explains.

Foods like vegetable oils, nuts, legumes, grains and cereals are a good source of these cholesterol-lowering goodies.

But how do these plant components get into creamy butter? Companies produce plant-sterol fortified foods.

That’s why something as plain as butter can help your levels.

After you eat foods enhanced by plant sterols, they get absorbed from the intestines to your bloodstream and block some of the cholesterol from being absorbed too.

This process occurs because plant sterols are similar to cholesterol in their chemical structure.

Because of this similarity, the fatty substance competes with the plant compound for absorption.

This helps to lower cholesterol in your blood. According to the research, they are able to slash the fatty substance by as much as 10 percent.

But their ability to do so depends on a person’s age and metabolism.

And by reducing your cholesterol levels you also lower your heart disease and stroke risk.

So next time you are shopping for butter, make sure you reach for the option with plant sterols to enjoy all the benefits.

Brands like Flora and Benecol offer plant-sterol products in the UK.

There are also various different options enriched with these goodies, including yoghurts, dairy drinks and others.

However, the only people who can benefit from them are people with high cholesterol levels, Heart UK reports.

How many plant sterols do I need to eat?

The heart health charity recommends one to three servings of enriched foods daily.

That should give you around one to three grams of these goodies.

According to research, following this regime for over three weeks can bring a 10 percent reduction in cholesterol.

To illustrate this, around two teaspoons of butter or one 120-gram yoghurt should meet this target.

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