(HealthDay)—A suite of ready-to-eat bioactive snacks can meaningfully reduce cholesterol in patients unwilling or unable to take statin drugs, according to a study published Jan. 26 in the Journal of Nutrition.

Stephen L. Kopecky, M.D., from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and colleagues evaluated the effect of snacks containing a compendium of functional bioactives (≥5 g fiber, 1,000 mg ω-3 fatty acids, 1,000 mg phytosterols, and 1,800 μmol antioxidants per serving) on fasting low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol in statin candidates unwilling to use or intolerant to statin drugs. For four weeks, 18 men and 36 women used these ready-to-eat snacks as a substitute twice daily.

The researchers found that LDL cholesterol was lowered by a mean of 8.80 percent and total cholesterol dropped a mean of 5.08 percent with treatment foods versus control foods. No other analytes changed with the treatment snacks. There were no significant associations between single-nucleotide polymorphisms and outcomes. Compliance with study snacks was 95 percent.

“Consumption of hedonically acceptable snacks containing a compendium of cholesterol-lowering bioactive compounds can rapidly and meaningfully reduce LDL cholesterol in adult patients unable or unwilling to take statin drugs,” the authors write.

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