Phytosterols: health benefits and food sources

What are phytosterols?

Phytosterols are compounds that exist in plants and have a structure similar to cholesterol. The name “phytosterols” is a general term for a large class of chemical substances existing in plants. There are more than one hundred kinds of plant sterols, including β-sitosterol, Campesterol, stigmasterol, sitostanol, etc.

Phytosterols health benefits

1. Numerous clinical and animal experiments and epidemiological studies have found that phytosterol supplementation has the effect of lowering total blood cholesterol (TC) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). At the same time, it does not reduce the levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and triglycerides (TG) and does not have any significant side effects.
   
2. A large number of studies have found that phytosterols have a certain significance in reducing the incidence of benign prostatic hypertrophy in men.
   
3. Epidemiological studies have shown that dietary intake of phytosterols is negatively associated with the incidence of some cancers such as prostate, ovarian, and stomach cancers.
   
4. Some scholars have suggested that phytosterols may have antioxidant functions.

Plant sterols have many health benefits, but the human body cannot synthesize them, so we need to consume them in our daily diet. Then what are the main food sources of plant sterols?

The main food sources of phytosterols

All kinds of plant foods contain phytosterols. Among them, vegetable oils, dried beans, nuts, etc are with high phytosterol content. The latter two are the main sources of phytosterols in our daily diet. The content of phytosterols in vegetables and fruits is relatively small. Various types of plant foods containing phytosterols are as follows:

Vegetable oils:
Corn germ oil, rapeseed oil, sesame oil, sunflower oil, olive oil, etc.

Cereals:
Whole wheat flour, barley rice, millet, purple rice, corn flour, etc.

Beans：
Soybeans, green beans, black beans, mung beans, tofu, etc.

Vegetables：
Cauliflower, carrots, beans, cabbage, etc.

Fruit：
Oranges, peaches, pears, etc.

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