Cholesterol Reducing

American researchers say a new, low-fat substitute for butter could reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke for millions of people.
The new food product is made from vegetable oil with added substances called sterol esters.
Sterols are known to reduce harmful cholesterol in the blood.
Harmful cholesterol increases the risk of heart attack.
Cholesterol is found in meat and milk products.
Sterol esters are similar in structure to cholesterol.
However, sterols come from plant oils.
The new,low-fat product is called Take Control.
It contains sterol esters from soybeans.
Take Control is one of two food products designed to reduce cholesterol.
The other,called Benecol, contains plant stanol esters from the wood of pine trees.
The United States Food and Drug Administration approved both products last year.
Earlier studies have shown that eating Benecol for several months reduces harmful cholesterol levels as much as fourteen percent.
The new study involved 224 people with moderate to high levels of harmful cholesterol.
All the people ate a diet of lowfat,low-cholesterol foods for five weeks.
One group of people ate a common low-fat product on bread and other foods.
Another group ate one gram of Take Control daily.
The other group ate two grams of it each day.
Researchers say the harmful cholesterol levels of those who ate Take Control daily dropped more than 8%.
The harmful cholesterol levels of people who had the common low-fat spread rose more than two percent.