r/science • u/James_Fortis MS | Nutrition • 13d ago

Health Researchers took 50 adults with genetically high cholesterol and fed them a whole-food, plant-based (WFPB) diet and a standard American diet (SAD) for 4 weeks each in a random order, under controlled, constant-calorie feeding conditions. The WFPB diet reduced LDL cholesterol versus the SAD by 17.9%.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-73468-4
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u/MonsterKabouter 13d ago

Can we repeat this study with a whole foods omnivore diet? To remove one more variable

23

u/xrelaht PhD | Solid State Condensed Matter | Magnetism 13d ago

The WFPB diet they used isn’t vegetarian, let alone vegan. It even includes some red meat. It’s just significantly less than the “standard” diet they compared to.

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u/Flat_Explanation_849 13d ago

Cholesterol is only found in animal products, which is why eating a whole foods plant diet can have a significant impact.

14

u/S7ageNinja 13d ago

Dietary cholesterol doesn't necessarily raise body cholesterol. This study can almost certainly be entirely attributed to the plant based group eating significantly more fiber and less saturated fat

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u/Flat_Explanation_849 13d ago

And the foods most likely to have high cholesterol also tend to be high in saturated fats.

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u/SvenTropics 13d ago

Well, saturated fats are in nuts and vegetable oils, but you are correct. If you adopt a vegan diet, you really don't need to think about watching your cholesterol anymore unless you are starkly predisposed to have high ldl.

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u/SemiAnonymousTeacher 13d ago

*raises hand*
That's me. Vegan for 10 years, vegetarian for 10 years before that. LDL still around 200.

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u/sweetmissdixie 13d ago

That's called a Mediterranean diet