Jogchum Plat

TL;DR: It is tempting to suggest that dietary beta-glucans may be a useful tool to prime the host immune system and increase resistance against invading pathogens.

TL;DR: Functional foods with plant sterols/stanols may be considered in individuals with high cholesterol levels at intermediate or low global cardiovascular risk who do not qualify for pharmacotherapy and as an adjunct to pharmacologic therapy in high and very high risk patients who fail to achieve LDL-C targets on statins or are statin- intolerant.

TL;DR: At recommended intakes of about 2 to 2.5 g/day, products enriched with plant stanol/sterol esters lower plasma LDL cholesterol levels by 10% to 14% without any reported side effects, and plant stanols/sterols can be considered to be effective and safe cholesterol-lowering functional food ingredients.

TL;DR: In this paper, plant sterols and stanols, which are structurally related to cholesterol, decrease the incorporation of dietary and biliary cholesterol into micelles, which leads to decreased serum LDL cholesterol concentrations.

TL;DR: There is no consistent evidence that plant sterols or stanols can change the risk of colon or prostate cancer, or immune status, and potential effects of plant sterol or stanol esters on other metabolic processes remain to be elucidated.