Plant sterols and stanols
Our expert Azmina Govindji discusses functional foods - the lowdown on those added extras
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Azmina - These are actually normal parts of vegetables. You get plant sterols and stanols in vegetable oils, but actually the publicity around them is this functional food has been shown to lower blood cholesterol. So you might have seen way back - probably about 10 years ago -you could get these spreads that had plant sterols added to them, and they said that if you have this spread on your bread two or three times a day, that will lower your cholesterol. And actually, there is good research to support that.
Presenter - And these are natural products - not chemicals?
Azmina - No, they are not chemicals, but you couldn't get through that much in a day, so they have actually extracted the active ingredient from the vegetable oils, taken those plant sterols and stanols, put them into a form which makes it easy for you to access and, in fact, the margarines did OK, but now what we have is drinks.
Presenter - Yoghurt drinks ...
Azmina - Yes, yoghurt drinks - Benecol, Danacol, Pro-Activ - these are actually cholesterol lowering, so you only need one a day and it's just a 100ml bottle. There is research to show that, if you do have one a day, you could reduce your LDL, the bad cholesterol, by up to about 10-15 per cent, which is very significant.
Presenter - I have to say I have looked at those and I have been slightly put off by the names of them. It says they've got sterols or stanols in it and you think that's a chemical; I just want to eat natural food. But actually you have just dispelled one myth in my mind. These things are perfectly safe and good to have.
Azmina - There has been very good research on all of that and I think they are very good. You wouldn't want to give them to children, for example, because they don't have raised cholesterol. I would only suggest you have those if you have raised cholesterol. I wouldn't promote them for the general population.
Presenter - OK. But also, if you do think you have high cholesterol, don't think that that's going to be the panacea - you've got to be very careful and everything else?
Azmina - Well, it's got to be part of a healthy diet. There is no point eating the chocolates and the crisps and then going for one of these.
Presenter - Are those drinks good for your digestion as well?
Azmina - Not necessarily, no. They are promoted specifically for cholesterol-lowering effect.
Presenter - OK. Sterols and stanols are good news and, again, you find those can be added into spreads or yoghurt drinks.
Azmina - And I believe some sort of cheese spreads too, as well.
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