Leeks, The Natural Anti High Blood Cholesterol Functional Food

Cholesterol is a waxy substance that is produced either by the liver or injected from animal food sources.

Cholesterol found in our body is needed for our body to build cell walls, hormones, and vitamin D, and create bile salts that aid digestion. However, too much of them, in most cases due to the intake of animal protein can cause plaques built up on the arterial wall, the major cause of heart disease and stroke.

More precisely, if levels of low-density lipoprotein are high compared to high-density lipoprotein which returns the accessed cholesterol back to the liver, you have high blood cholesterol.

In other words, healthy blood cholesterol is any level with either less than or equal to 4 (low-density lipoprotein/ 1 (high-density lipoprotein).



Low-density lipoprotein is needed for our body to build cell walls, make hormones and vitamin D, and create bile salts that help you digest fat. However, overexpression of LDL can induce plaque accumulated on the arterial wall, leading to atherosclerosis, a major cause of cardiovascular disease.

Low-density lipoprotein is produced by the liver or from the dietary sources. High-density lipoprotein neutralizes the levels LDL by returning them to the liver.

Some researchers suggested that diet high in trans fats, saturated fat, sugar, smoking, medical conditions such as diabetes or high blood pressure are associated with the increased risk of high blood cholesterol.

According to the statistics, in 2015-2016, by age and gender, a total of 12.4 percent of adults aged 20 years and over had high cholesterol in the United States.



Although there are many risk factors such as obesity, large waist circumference, physically inactive, smoking and diabetes associated with the onset of high blood cholesterol, researchers suggested that a poor diet with rich in saturated and trans fat, processed foods is the major cause of high blood cholesterol in the Western world.


Epidemiological studies indicated a healthy diet that contains a high amount of fruits and vegetables and whole-grain have a positive on blood cholesterol. In other words, hyperlipidemia can be prevented by a healthy diet.



Leek is a genius of Allium, belonging to the vegetable family vegetable Alliacaea, the same as onion and garlic. Leeks are easy to grow from seed and usually reach maturity in the autumn months, and have few pest or disease problems.


On finding a potential plant that processes anti-high blood cholesterol, researchers examined the effects of oral administration of Persian leek on plasma and liver lipids.


The study included male Syrian hamsters that were randomly divided into three groups: control (standard diet), high-fat control (high-fat/high-cholesterol diet), Persian leek (high-fat/high-cholesterol diet + 1% per weight of diet from dried powdered Persian leek) for 14 weeks.

Before treatment of a high-fat diet showed an increase of plasma and liver lipids compared to a standard diet.


Administration of Persian leek to the high-fat/high-cholesterol diet resulted in no significant changes in the concentration of the plasma lipids or liver cholesterol.



Liver triglycerides (TG), plasma Alanine aminotransferase and gene expression of tumor necrosis factor- α associated with liver stress marker and pro-inflammatory cytokines, compared to high-fat diet only.



Collectively, researchers said, "Persian leek might be considered as a herbal food that can reduce liver TG accumulation induced by high-fat diets".


Taken altogether, leeks may be considered a functional food for the prevention and treatment of high blood cholesterol, pending to the confirmation of the larger sample size and multicenter human study.


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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) Effects of Persian leek (Allium ampeloprasum) on hepatic lipids and the expression of proinflammatory gene in hamsters fed a high-fat/ high-cholesterol diet by Fatoorechi V1, Rismanchi M2, Nasrollahzadeh J. (PubMed)