By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD
Although we usually think of cholesterol as coming from animal products, plants contain very small amounts of cholesterol.1 The cholesterol content of plants is estimated to be hundreds to thousands times less than that of animals.2 These low levels of cholesterol mean that plants’ contribution to dietary cholesterol intake is extremely small. We were only able to find estimates of cholesterol amounts in plant oils but not in whole plant foods. Corn oil, for example, is reported to have 55 milligrams of cholesterol in a kilogram of oil.1 This works out to less than 1 milligram of cholesterol in a tablespoon of corn oil. In contrast, one egg yolk has 184 milligrams of cholesterol.
Plants contain much higher amounts of substances similar to cholesterol but with a slightly different structure called phytosterols or plant sterols. Manufacturers use plant sterols to make cholesterol which is sometimes used in pharmaceuticals.
Vegans and lacto-ovo vegetarians have higher mean intakes of phytosterols than do nonvegetarians.3 This may be a benefit of a plant-based diet since higher consumption of plant sterols is associated with lower blood cholesterol and LDL (bad) cholesterol levels.4,5
References
1. Behrman EJ, Gopalan V. Cholesterol and plants. J Chem Educ. 2005; 82:1791–1793.
2. Sonawane PD, Pollier J, Panda S, et al. Plant cholesterol biosynthetic pathway overlaps with phytosterol metabolism. Nat Plants. 2016;3:16205.
3. Jaceldo-Siegl K, Lütjohann D, Sirirat R, Mashchak A, Fraser GE, Haddad E. Variations in dietary intake and plasma concentrations of plant sterols across plant-based diets among North American adults. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2017;61(8):10.
4. Andersson SW, Skinner J, Ellegård L, et al. Intake of dietary plant sterols is inversely related to serum cholesterol concentration in men and women in the EPIC Norfolk population: a cross-sectional study. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2004;58(10):1378-85.
5. Klingberg S, Ellegård L, Johansson I, et al. Inverse relation between dietary intake of naturally occurring plant sterols and serum cholesterol in northern Sweden. Am J Clin Nutr. 2008;87(4):993-1001.
For more nutrition information, see https://www.vrg.org/nutrition/
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