Kathleen Brennan
KATHLEEN BRENNAN









Eating certain foods can help people lower their cholesterol levels, even without
 the aid of medication, a new study finds.
In the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association,
patients who started out with high or borderline high LDL, or bad cholesterol,
levels (anything above 158 mg/dL) were able to lower their LDL by 14% over
six months by sticking with a diet rich in cholesterol-lowering foods.
That diet cut participants' LDL three times more than a standard low-fat diet.
So what foods were effective against artery-clogging fat? According to study
leader Dr. David Jenkins, chair of nutrition, metabolism and vascular biology
at the University of Toronto, there are four pillars of a cholesterol-lowering diet:
plant oils or sterols such as margarine; viscous fibers including oats, barley and
psyllium; nuts; and soy./.../