If we can find more non-drug options that will help people lower their cholesterol levels, it would have a great impact on reducing their risk of cardiovascular disease. The one used in this study, Take Control, contains vegetable oil sterol esters from soybeans. The other spread, Benecol, contains plant stanol esters, which come from wood pulp from pine trees. The stanol-based spread has been used in Finland since 1995. The spreads won U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval this year and are sold in grocery stores.
Cholesterol is a fatty substance that forms deposits in the blood vessel.
Blood vessels that become severely blocked by cholesterol deposits are unable to supply blood to the heart or brain, triggering a heart attack or stroke. In a study of 224 people with cholesterol levels in the mildly to moderately high range, the spread lowered cholesterol levels at doses of 1 to 2 grams per day over a five week period, Maki says. The subjects in the study were divided into three groups. The other two groups followed the same diet with one group eating the 1-gram dose and the other taking 2 grams of the sterol spread. According to Maki, was that more was not necessarily better when it came to the sterol spread's cholesterol-lowering benefits.