Hard Margarine May Not Be Best for Cholesterol Control

Toss the stick margarine, if you worry about your cholesterol. According to work by nutritionist Alice H. Lichtenstein and her colleagues at Tufts University, when it comes to processed fats like butter, margarine and lard, softer is better.

In the study, published in today’s New England Journal of Medicine, 18 men and 18 women with elevated cholesterol levels were each fed one of six low-fat diets that incorporated either soybean oil, semiliquid margarine, soft margarine, shortening, stick margarine or butter. Those who ate diets containing soybean oil or semiliquid margarine showed the greatest reduction in low-density lipoproteins, the so-called bad cholesterol. Those consuming stick margarine had a lesser reduction, and those who ate butter had the smallest.

--Compiled from Times staff reports