Be BOLD - And Healthy - With Beef
Contrary to conventional wisdom, beef can be good for heart health.
Compiled by staff
Published: Dec 26, 2011
New research shows that eating lean beef every day can be good for heart health by improving cholesterol levels. That's what a new checkoff-funded study called BOLD (Beef in an Optimal Lean Diet) shows – that adding lean beef to the most recommended heart-healthy diet can lower heart disease risk by reducing levels of total and LDL "bad" cholesterol.
The BOLD clinical study (Effects on Lipids, Lipoproteins and Apolipoproteins), conducted by Pennsylvania State University researchers, evaluated adults with moderately elevated cholesterol levels, who followed four diets with varying amounts of beef, for five weeks each, to measure the impact of each diet on measures of heart health, such as total and LDL ("bad") cholesterol levels.
Subjects following the BOLD diet experienced a 10-percent decrease in LDL cholesterol from the start of the study. After five weeks, there were significant reductions in total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol in the BOLD diet.
"The BOLD study provides new research that health professionals can use to update their dietary recommendations with scientific findings showcasing how lean beef can maintain and even improve heart health," says Brian Healey, cow-calf producer from Davis, Okla. and vice-chair of the checkoff's Joint Human Nutrition Research Committee. And research shows that when people include food they enjoy, like lean beef, they are more likely to stick to their heart-healthy diet longer."
Consumers can follow the same heart-healthy diet as participants of the BOLD study by using recipes from checkoff's Healthy Beef Cookbook, a collection of delicious, nutrient-rich recipes for America's favorite protein, beef.
The BOLD study has been published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Here is a fact sheet about beef in an optimal lean diet.
To learn more about lean beef's nutrition and heart-health benefits, please visit BeefItsWhatsForDinner.com.
For more information about your beef checkoff, visit MyBeefCheckoff.com.
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