High cholesterol: risk factor fruit and vegetables
According to "Ärztliche Praxis", what has been preached for years as an effective strategy against civilization diseases has now not only proven to be ineffective, but even harmful: In a small study on women, a low-fat diet with a high proportion of fruit and vegetables caused an increase in LDL - cholesterols. This variant of cholesterol is considered potentially harmful to health, since high blood levels increase the risk of vascular calcification, reports the "Ärztliche Praxis".
A Finnish research team came to the surprising conclusion when they examined the effect of changing diets on blood lipids. For this purpose, 37 healthy women were given one of two low-fat diets, the amount of total fat in which was either initially 70 g and later 56 g per day (reduced fat with little fruit and vegetables) or 59 g per day (reduced fat with lots of fruit and vegetables). The intake of saturated fatty acids was reduced from an initial 28 g to 20 g or 19 g, and that of polyunsaturated fatty acids was increased from 11 g to 13 g or 19 g.
The response to the low-fat, low-fruit diet was a 27 percent increase in LDL levels in the blood plasma. If a lot of fruit and vegetables were consumed, this led to an increase of at least 19 percent. Both forms of nutrition also caused a small but significant decrease in “good” HDL cholesterol, the specialist magazine reports in conclusion.
Source: Gyhum [lme-online]
