Many healthy plant foods contain considerable amounts of phytosterols.
Throughout the ages, they have been a part of the human diet as a component of nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables and legumes.
It has been suggested that paleolithic hunter-gatherers, who ate a diet rich in plants, consumed large amounts of phytosterols (3).
In comparison to modern diets, this is not entirely true.
Vegetable oils are actually very high in phytosterols. Because these oils are added to all sorts of processed foods, the total intake of phytosterols is probably greater than ever before (4).
Cereal grains also contain modest amounts of phytosterols, and can be a major source for people who eat a lot of grains (5).
Then phytosterols are added to some processed foods, especially margarines, which are then labelled as “cholesterol lowering” and claimed to help prevent heart disease.
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