Research involves candidates for functional food ingredients by examining the efficacy of novel bioactive materials such as plant sterols -- natural components found in plants which can act as cholesterol-lowering agents.
The research shows the well-known cholesterol-lowering effect of eating walnuts works equally well in the elderly, even in the long term, the authors reported.
It compared the risk of cataracts among people who had taken the widely used cholesterol-lowering medications for at least 90 days, compared with non-users.
Red yeast rice extract, one of the fungal sources from which the statins were discovered, contains several naturally occurring cholesterol-lowering molecules known as monacolins.