Plant Sterols Roles in Margarines

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Plant SterolsRoles in Margarines

• Pennington Biomedical Research Center
• Division of Education
• Heli J. Roy PhDShanna Lundy, BS
• Phillip Brantley, PhD, Director

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Overview

• Phytochemicals, or plant chemicals, have been
  studied recently in an effort to explain why the
  consumption of fruits and vegetables may help
  prevent coronary heart disease
• Of the three types of phytochemicals, namely
  plant sterols, flavonoids, and plant sulfur
  compounds, only plant sterols have been
  incorporated into margarine spreads

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Plant Sterols

• Plant sterols are naturally occurring components
  of plant cell membranes just as cholesterol is a
  part of animal cell membranes
• The three most abundant sterols are
• Beta-sitosterol
• Campesterol
• stigmasterol

Cell membrane
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Plant Sterols

• It was recognized in the 1950s that plant sterols
  lowered serum concentrations of cholesterol
• Their chemical appearance is rather similar to
  cholesterol, but they are not found in any
  significant abundance in eukaryotic cells
• Plant sterols and their derivatives act in the
  small bowel by competitively inhibiting
  intestinal absorption of cholesterol

Thus lower serum concentrations of cholesterol
are observed
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Benefits

• A meta-analysis of 18 clinical trials supporting
  the efficacy of action of spreads containing
  plant sterols and stanols suggests that regular
  consumption of 2 g per day of these materials,
  compared with margarine alone, lowers LDL
  cholesterol concentrations by at least
• 0.5 mmol/L for individuals aged 50-59 years
• And 0.4 mmol/L for individuals aged 40-49 years
• At this level of LDL lowering, a reduction in
  heart disease risk
  of 25 would be expected in the populations!

Larger than the effect that could be expected to
be achieved by people reducing their intake of
saturated fat!
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Take Control and Benecol

• Margarine-like spreads that have recently been
  authorized by the Food and Drug Administration
  (FDA) to include cholesterol lowering claims on
  their labels
• Both are available in the dairy case of your
  local
  supermarket
• The FDA authorizes the claims based on the
  evidence that the plant sterol and stanol esters
  in these products may help lower LDL cholesterol,
  without effecting HDL, reducing the risk of
  coronary heart disease in some individuals

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Any Difference in Take Control and Benecol?

• Yes, however research indicates that both of the
  cholesterol-lowering margarines work equally well
• Benecol is composed of plant stanols, which are
  hydrogenated forms of plant sterols
• This type of margarine is synthetically produced
  as plant stanols exist only in small quantities
  in nature
• Take Control contains unprocessed plant sterols,
  which are abundantly available

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Benecol
Benecol

• The key ingredient in Benecol is a plant stanol
  ester,derived from pine trees
• Been shown to have a cholesterol lowering effect
  by reducing absorption

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Benecol

• The effective daily dose of Benecol is 1.5
  tablespoons a day eaten in three servings of 1.5
  teaspoons
• Unlike Take Control, the Benecol regular spread
  can be used for cooking and baking
• However, Benecol light is not recommended for
  cooking

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Take Control

• Uses unmodified plant sterols extracted from
  soybeans as its active ingredient
• The plant sterols inhibit cholesterol absorption
  in the small intestine,
  lowering blood cholesterol levels

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Take Control

• Recommendations include using one tablespoon of
  Take Control as a spread twice a day as part of
  a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol
• Contains 50 calories per tablespoon, which is
  half of that found in regular margarine
• Cannot be used for cooking if the
  cholesterol-fighting effect of the margarine is
  hoped to be maintained because the plant sterols
  break down when heated

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Information.

• 1.5 tablespoons of Benecol contains 120 kcal,
  13.5 g of fat, and 1.5 g saturated fat
• 1.5 tablespoons of Take Control contains 75 kcal,
  9 g fat, and 1.5 g saturated fat

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Cost
Benecol
Take Control

• Cost is 5.00 per 8 oz. Tub

• Cost is 4.00 per 12 oz. tub

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Safety?

• The most important concern about plant sterols is
  that they reduce the absorption of some fat
  soluble vitamins
• Randomized trials have shown that plant sterols
  and stanols have lowered blood concentrations of
  beta carotene, alpha carotene, and vitamin E by
  25, 10, and 8, respectively
• Since these vitamins protect LDL cholesterol from
  oxidation, a good recommendation would be to
  consume more fruit and vegetables to counter the
  decrease in absorption

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Future Areas of Research

• Include possible inverse links between plant
  sterol consumption (beta-sitosterol) and cancer
  risk
• Compared with a cholesterol control,
  beta-sitosterol provided to LNCaP cells, a human
  prostate cancer cell line, retarded cell growth
  rate by 24
• Because prostate cancer occurs worldwide and is
  the second main cause of cancer-related death in
  men, future work will undoubtedly be focused in
  this area

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Sites

• http//bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/320/72
  38/861
• http//cats.med.uvm.edu/cats_teachingmod/family_pr
  actice/modules/nutrition/margarines/margarines.htm
  l
• http//www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/166/12/1555
• http//www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/columnnn/nn00122
  6.html