JANUARY 2007

COULD A GLASS OF ORANGE JUICE twice a day help improve your cholesterol levels? Researchers at the University of California-Davis think so—provided that the juice is supplemented with plant sterols. In a new study, researchers found that reduced-calorie orange juice with added plant sterols reduced levels of Creactive protein, a marker for inflammation that may predict the risk of atherosclerosis. The juice mixture also decreased total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol while increasing hearthealthy HDL cholesterol.

Plant sterols occur naturally in small amounts in vegetables, fruits, nuts, cereals, legumes and other foods. Though chemically similar to cholesterol, they seem to inhibit the body’s absorption of cholesterol. Both the FDA and the National Cholesterol Education Panel (NCEP) advocate the use of plant sterols to help fight unhealthy cholesterol. Some margarines and other spreads have already incorporated plant sterols in an effort to create cholesterol-fighting foods; similar benefits to those seen in the juice test can be obtained from margarines such as Take Control or Benecol. The NCEP’s Adult Treatment Panel III recommends two grams of plant sterols daily.

“Dietary therapy is the cornerstone of strategies aimed at reducing LDL cholesterol and thereby reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease,” according to Sridevi Devaraj, PhD, lead author of the study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The double-blind trial tested 72 healthy volunteers. Half the group were randomly assigned to drink about eight ounces of reduced-calorie orange juice supplemented with one gram of plant sterols twice a day with meals. The other subjects, assigned to a placebo group, were given juice without added sterols.

After eight weeks, the sterol-supplemented group showed C-reactive protein levels averaging 12% lower compared to the placebo group and to their baseline at the beginning. The test group also had 5% lower total cholesterol and 9.4% lower LDL cholesterol compared to baseline and the placebo group. Levels of the “good” HDL cholesterol improved 6% over baseline; both groups improved HDL levels, but the increase was higher in the sterol group.

A concern about plant sterols has been that they might also suppress the body’s absorption of healthful nutrients such as vitamin E and carotenoids. But the study found no significant change in concentrations of these compounds.

The Coca-Cola Co., which makes Minute Maid juice, helped fund the research, along with the National Institutes of Health. Minute Maid Premium Heart Wise juice contains one gram of plant sterols per eight-ounce serving, but has 110 calories. Minute Maid also makes a 50-calorie “Light” beverage, like that used in the study, though this does not contain plant sterols as of yet.