How far foods that raise hdl work?

When you look at the list of foods to increase hdl ,most probably you may wonder: is there any research study to prove the efficiency of the above foods?

You are right. You need to know the real scientific facts. Remember: There is still work to be done for further statements. Anyway, in the following paragraphs I am going to show you the research studies conducted till now.

Foods that raise hdl cholesterol, Berries

Clinical studies find that anthocyanins found in berries may boost hdl levels and decrease ldl profile. At the same time, they may protect your heart muscle from the damage of free radicals.

This finding is supported by a clinical trial led in 2008 by the well-known French heart researcher Michel de Lorgeril (Toufektsian MC et al. 2008). He conducted this study in two groups of rodents.

The first group he put in a corn-based diet rich in anthocyanins. The other group was put in an anthocyanin-free diet.

It came out that the rodents that received a diet rich in anthocyanins had 30% less damage to heart tissue.

“Our findings suggest important potential health benefits of foods rich in anthocyanins... clinical intervention trials are warranted to determine if anthocyanin consumption in humans also has cardio-protective effects.” - wrote de Lorgeril's team.

There is another study conducted in China's Sun Yat-Sen University, but this time the Chinese researchers assigned 120 middle aged people with unhealthful blood lipid profiles in a twelve week trial.

In this double-blind trial, 60 participants received 160 mg of berry-derived anthocyanins twice daily. The other 60 people got placebo pills.

After twelve weeks, the “good” cholesterol raised by 14 percent and “bad” cholesterol lowered by 13.6 percent in the anthocyanin group, while in the placebo group hdl raised only by 2.8 percent and ldl cholesterol increased by 0.6 percent.

Meanwhile, the excess of cholesterol removal from body cells was increased by 20 percent in the anthocyanin group in comparison with only 0.2 percent in the placebo group.

The Chinese team studied also the role of plasma cholesteryl ester tranfer protein (CETP). This collects fats (triglycerides) from LDL cholesterol and exchanges for cholesteryl ester from HDL and the vice versa.

This leads to lower the levels of HDL cholesterol, inducing higher risk factor for heart diseases, and target for drugs and foods to lower CETP (according to Ansell B, Hobbs FD 2006; Hunt JA, Lu Z 2009)

In the people taking the anthocyanin supplements, the CETP function fell by 6.3 percent compared to 1.1 percent in the placebo group.

You may now understand the benefits of berries as a worthy group of foods that raise HDL. Theirs anthocyanins components suppress a well known risk factor related to cholesterol management.

Go for berries! It's cheap and healthy natural way!

Click here to get the other part of clinical trials showing the efficiency of foods that raise hdl.

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