[authors]<\/p>\n
P. Seferidi<\/a>, F.N. Skopouli<\/a><\/p>\n [\/authors]<\/p>\n [summary]<\/p>\n Phytosterols are natural constituents of plants and they are structurally related to cholesterol, whereas phytostanols\u00a0are the saturated forms of plant sterols. A typical western-type diet contains daily about 200\u2013400 mg plant sterols,\u00a0and about 50 mg of plant stanols. Plant sterols and stanols are known as cholesterol lowering agents, when they are\u00a0consumed in high doses. Clinical trials have consistently shown that intake of 2\u20133 g\/day of plant sterols is associated with\u00a0significant lowering (4\u201315%) of LDL cholesterol. Total cholesterol is also reduced to similar extent, and recent studies have\u00a0indicated beneficial effect on plasma triglyceride levels. In the inherited disease sitosterolemia, in which decrease excretion\u00a0and elevated circulating, as well as, tissue levels of phytosterols are observed, atherosclerosis and cardiovascular events are\u00a0the main causes of premature death. This pathological entity raised questions about the relation of increased consumption\u00a0of phytosterols and cardiovascular risk despite the low levels of cholesterol. There are some epidemiological studies and\u00a0clinical trials that confirm this hypothesis, while others do not. The guidelines from scientific societies are controversial. Some\u00a0guidelines recommend the use of plant sterols as therapeutic agents for hypercholesterolemia, while others are cautious.\u00a0Prospective clinical studies are needed to clarify the role of plant sterols to atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease.<\/p>\n [\/summary]<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Phytosterols are natural constituents of plants and they are structurally related to cholesterol, whereas phytostanols
\nare the saturated forms of plant sterols.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":402,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hjnutrdiet.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hjnutrdiet.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hjnutrdiet.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hjnutrdiet.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/402"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hjnutrdiet.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hjnutrdiet.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hjnutrdiet.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hjnutrdiet.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hjnutrdiet.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}