Blueberries for Bad Cholesterol Levels

Hamsters that fed on blueberry peels and other blueberry juice processing leftovers had good cholesterol health than hamsters that weren't fed on blueberries, says study led by USDA chemist, Wallace H. Yokoyama. Levels of VLDL (very low density lipoprotein-a form of "bad" cholesterol) were about 44 percent lower in the blueberry-fed hamsters.

Yokoyama pointed out that further research is needed to confirm whether the effects observed in hamsters hold true for humans.

In hamsters-and in humans-the liver both makes cholesterol and helps get rid of excessive levels of it. Results suggest that activity of some liver genes that either produce or use cholesterol resulted in the lower blood cholesterol levels.

The study is published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Source-ANI