Word: benecol
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...taste good and be reasonably good for me. But more and more these days we're encouraged to view the grocery store as a medicine chest. There are tofu and yams for hot flashes. Ginseng tea for energy. Stewed tomatoes to prevent prostate cancer. So when I heard about Benecol and Take Control, the new margarines that are supposed to lower cholesterol levels in the blood, I didn't exactly smack my lips in anticipation. Still, I figured, given how much heart disease there is in the U.S., they deserved a look...
Both spreads come with pretty good scientific credentials. The key ingredient in Benecol, which was approved last week by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, comes from a compound that occurs naturally in pine trees. Take Control, which got the green light in April, uses an extract made from soybean oil. Randomized, controlled trials show that folks with mildly elevated cholesterol levels (between 200 mg/dl and 240 mg/dl) who ate roughly two tablespoons of Benecol a day decreased their level of LDL, the "bad cholesterol," about 14%. The manufacturers of Take Control, on the other hand, designed their product...
...Both Benecol and Take Control make it harder for the intestines to absorb cholesterol. (About half of the cholesterol in the gut comes from your diet; the other half gets produced by your body.) There is evidence that the active ingredients can pull some vitamin A precursors out of circulation--although researchers did not consider the reduction significant...
...spreads taste? In a highly unscientific study, my colleague Janice Horowitz and I sampled both products. Without telling Janice which was which, I spread Benecol, Take Control and regular margarine on three pieces of whole wheat bread. Then she did the same for me. Overall, we found all three tasted pretty much alike, although Janice described a "funny mouth feel" after eating the cholesterol-fighting spreads. I found Benecol marginally less tasty...
Just in time for all those Memorial Day barbecues and picnics: margarine that can help cut your cholesterol. The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday approved a new cholesterol-reducing margarine called Benecol, which is made with a substance found in pine trees. Available next week, it follows on the heels of Take Control, a spread containing a natural soybean extract, which hit the shelves last week. The two new products are among the first of a new series of foods that are designed to act like drugs and promote health or prevent disease. "The studies show that these products...