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[ A Low-Fat Diet Rich in Vegetables, Fruits, Whole Grains and Beans Has Twice the Cholesterol-Lowering Power of a Conventional Low-Fat Diet ... ]

Posted on: Monday, 23 May 2005, 09:00 CDT

* News

A low-fat diet rich in vegetables, fruits, whole grains and beans has twice the cholesterol-lowering power of a conventional low-fat diet, according to a new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine.

In dining terms, a meal of spinach salad, eggs and oatmeal- carrot cookies is healthier for your heart than stir-fried lean beef and asparagus and low-fat chocolate chip cookies - even when both meals contain the same amount of saturated fat and cholesterol.

The finding, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, comes from a comparison of two low-fat diets. The conventional diet focused solely on avoiding harmful saturated fat and cholesterol. Participants ate foods such as frozen waffles and turkey bologna sandwiches. The second diet included the same proportions of fat and cholesterol, plus plenty of plant-based foods in accordance with American Heart Association guidelines. Foods included hot grain cereals and vegetable soups.

Both diets lowered total and LDL (bad) cholesterol over the course of the four-week study. The conventional diet produced, on average, a 4.6 percent LDL decrease. Through the plant-based diet, there was an average 9.4 percent decrease in LDL. Researchers found no significant differences in changes to triglycerides or HDL (good) cholesterol.

"The effect of diet on lowering cholesterol has been really minimized and undermined by a lot of clinicians and researchers saying, 'Yes, it has an effect, but it's really trivial: It would be better to put you on drugs to control your cholesterol,'" said Christopher Gardner, assistant professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center and lead author on the National Institutes of Health-funded study. "But we think part of the reason was that we weren't really giving diet a fair shake. We were so focused on the negative - just what to avoid - and not what to include."

- Stanford University Medical Center

* Q&A

Q: Do dried, sweetened cranberries contain vitamin C?

A: Although dried fruits provide more fiber by weight than fresh fruits, they may not be as nutritious because the vitamins often are diminished in processing. A cup of fresh cranberries contains almost a quarter of the recommended daily value of vitamin C. Dried sweetened cranberries have almost zero vitamin C. They also contain sugar - 93 grams per cup versus 3 grams in fresh cranberries.

- Tufts University Health _& Nutrition Letter

* Recipes

This recipe for Strawberry Muffins uses fresh strawberries. A cup of strawberries has 88 milligrams of vitamin C, about 11/2 times the daily amount needed, and has only 55 calories. The recipe is from the Cooperative Extension Service.

Strawberry Muffins

2 cups flour

1/3 cup sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt, (optional)

1 cup mashed, fresh strawberries, unsweetened

2 eggs, beaten

1/3 cup oil

Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda and salt in large mixing bowl. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Mash strawberries to make 1 cup, and combine with eggs and oil in medium bowl. Add strawberry mixture to flour mixture, stirring until dry ingredients are moistened. Lightly grease muffin pans, and fill two- thirds full with batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Makes 12 regular muffins or 36 miniature muffins.

Per regular muffin: 166 calories, 3 g protein, 22 g carbohydrates, 7 g fat, 35 mg cholesterol, 1 g dietary fiber, 214 mg sodium.

Source: State Journal Register

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