Role of plant sterols in lipid lowering--a safety issue.
Sir,

In their review Gupta et al .1 failed to emphasize enough the crucial difference between plant sterols and stanols, namely their contrasting effects on plasma levels of plant sterols. Consumption of plant sterol esters raises plasma plant sterols whereas plant stanol esters lower them, by blocking their absorption. Evidence for this differential effect of plant sterols and stanols is derived both from population studies2 and clinical trials. In the latter, serum plant sterol levels increased by 35–120% on consumption of plant sterol 1.6 g daily,3 whereas taking 1.6 g of plant stanol …