Cholesterol-Cutting Margarine Reported
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
A new margarine made with a fat-blocking derivative from pine trees lowers blood cholesterol by an average of 14% in people who eat it, U.S. researchers reported. Men and women with borderline-high cholesterol who ate the spread regularly lowered both their total cholesterol and their so-called “bad” LDL cholesterol, which clogs arteries. The spread, sold under the name Benecol in Finland, will be launched in the United States within a few months. Dr. Lowell Dale of the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota was among those who took part in the first U.S. trials of Benecol, and he said the effects found were comparable to those in European trials: an overall 10% average lowering of cholesterol and a 14% reduction in LDL cholesterol.
