Consuming a soybean extract containing high levels of plant sterols can enhance the effect of lowering cholesterol through low fat low in cholesterol diet. According to recent study, lead by researcher, chemist Joseph T. Judd of USDA’s Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville, Md, in which 53 participants have added soybean sterols (about half a teaspoon daily for three weeks) to their already low cholesterol diet, had clearly showed that plant extracts such as the soybean sterols can in fact aid in the effort of lowering cholesterol through low fat diet.

Plant sterols can already be found in common market products such as salad dressings and margarines, and their potential for lowering cholesterol has been already observed for decades. The plant sterols used in the Beltsville research have a cholesterol like molecule structure and they work in reducing cholesterol by inhibiting the intestinal absorption of cholesterol. After consuming half a teaspoon of soybean extracts daily for three weeks, overall cholesterol levels among the participants including the bad LDL cholesterol had decreased by 8 percent on average.

Additionally, it seems that plant sterols can dramatically enhance the lowering of cholesterol and lower the risk for heart disease it combined with statin drugs to reduce cholesterol such as Lipitor and Zocor.

Plant sterols need fat to be absorbed and since most people usually don’t get to consume the required amount of plant sterols found in foods such as margarine, drug manufacturers have produced a pill containing the plant sterols and lecithin. Lecithin solves the problem where plant sterols need fat to be absorbed by allowing the plant sterols to be dissolved in water, thus helping the intestines absorb them better. (Lecithin by itself can also dramatically reduce cholesterol).

The pill works by using plant sterols to reduce cholesterol by interfering with the absorption of cholesterol by the body since their molecule structure resembles cholesterol.

The effects of using plant sterol in conjunction with statin drugs has been observed In a study at the Washington School of Medicine, where in 6 weeks participants who took the plant sterols pill had reduced their LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol that deposits in the arteries leading to atherosclerosis) by 9% and total cholesterol by 6%.