Cutting Cholesterol With a Soy Diet

People with high cholesterol may lower their levels by a third with avegetarian diet that combines "heart healthy" foods, including soyand soluble fiber, a study has found.

Although a healthy diet is a mainstay of controlling cholesterol,People can typically reduce levels only 10 percent by changing what theyeat. As a result, doctors routinely prescribe drugs called statins tolower cholesterol.

But studies suggested that certain plant foods were especially goodat lowering cholesterol, and a Canadian team created a diet thatcombined some of those foods.

"The reductions are surprising," said Cyril Kendall, a researcher atthe University of Toronto. "Most dietitians would not expect that sort ofreduction through dietary means."

Whether most people can keep to such a diet may be a problem. Itincludes daily okra, eggplant and Metamucil.

Mr. Kendall said his preliminary results suggested that the dietworked about as well as the statin drugs.

He presented the results of his approach, the Portfolio diet, onThursday at a meeting here of the American Heart Association. Thegovernment of Canada, the Almond Board of California, Unilever Canadaand Loblaw Brands sponsored the research.

"This was a pretty impressive result," Dr. Stephen Daniels of theChildren's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati said. "However, theresults need to be replicated. Can this be done in the real world oronly in an experiment?"

The diet is based on a low-fat vegetarian regimen that emphasizesfoods shown to be beneficial individually, soy, soluble fiber, plantSterols and almonds.

Sources of soluble fiber include oats, barley, legumes, eggplant,okra and Metamucil. Some margarines are high in plant sterols.

In the experiment, 25 volunteers ate a standard low-fat diet or thePortfolio approach. The researchers checked the effects onlow-density lipoprotein cholesterol, which increases the risk of heart disease,and high-density lipoprotein, which lowers it. After a month, L.D.L.levels fell 12 percent for the people on the standard diet and 35 percent inthose on the Portfolio diet. H.D.L. levels were unchanged in peopleon the Portfolio diet.

Dr. Kendall said that volunteers had found the diet extremely fillingand that several people had stayed on it after the experiment ended."It appears that a Portfolio diet is effective at reducing cholesteroland coronary heart disease risk," he said.

Statins reduce the risk of heart attacks and death, and they may alsoprotect the heart beyond their effects on cholesterol.

In the experiment, dieters received foods supplied by the researchersthat are all available from supermarkets or health food stores. Everymeal had soy in some form like soy yogurt or soy milk.

A typical breakfast included oat bran, fruit and soy milk. Lunchsometimes involved vegetarian chili, oat bran bread and tomato. Atypical dinner had vegetable curry, a soy burger, Northern beans,barley, okra, eggplant, cauliflower, onions and red peppers.

Volunteers also received Metamucil three times a day, for soluble fiber frompsyllium.

The volunteers were on diets that provided 2,000 calories a day.