Regular intake of plant-based diets may help reduce cholesterol levels.
This study examined the effect of consistent consumption of plant-based diets on plasma lipid levels. Researchers conducted a meticulous meta-analysis on data extracted from 49 observational and interventional studies.
The team of investigators found out that subjects who followed a plant-based dietary pattern had lower blood levels of total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, and high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol than subjects on omnivorous diets. In contrast, regular intake of vegetarian diets was found to have no significant effect on serum concentrations of triglycerides in this study. The findings of this meta-analysis suggest that habitual consumption of plant-based diets may help to decrease the amount of cholesterol floating in the blood..