Pistachios 'reduce cholesterol'

Pistachios in the diet can significantly reduce cholesterol and help prevent narrowing of the arteries.

One or two handfuls of the nuts can make a big enough difference to lower the risk of heart disease, say scientists.

Volunteers who ate three ounces of pistachios a day for one month lowered their total blood cholesterol by 8.4%.

Crucially, levels of "bad" cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), went down by 11.6%.

The balance between LDL and "good" cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL), was also changed. Participants on the pistachio diet had less LDL relative to HDL after four weeks.

HDL is protective rather than harmful and lower ratios between the two kinds of cholesterol are considered healthier.

The volunteers were given pistachios as a daily snack and also had them incorporated into other foods such as muffins and pesto sauce.

Researcher Sarah Gebauer, from Pennsylvania State University in the US, said: "Pistachio amounts of 1.5 ounces and three ounces - one to two handfuls - reduced risk for cardiovascular disease by significantly reducing LDL cholesterol levels and the higher dose significantly reduced lipoprotein ratios.

"We were pleased to see a difference between the two doses of pistachios for the lipoprotein ratios because it would appear that pistachios are causing the effect and that they act in a dose dependent way."

At the start of the study participants ate an average American diet consisting of 35% total fat and 11% saturated fat for two weeks. They were then put onto one of three different diets, all variants of a normal cholesterol-lowering low-fat diet. One included no pistachios, the second 1.5 ounces of pistachios a day, and the third three ounces of pistachios a day.

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