[LOW-FAT, FERMENTED MILK ENRICHED WITH PLANT STEROLS, A STRATEGY TO REDUCE HYPERTRIGLYCERIDEMA IN CHILDREN, A DOUBLE-BLIND, RANDOMIZED PLACEBO-COTROLLED TRIAL]

Abstract

Introduction: in the last few years, as the rate of childhood obesity has been rising, there has been a parallel increase in the incidence of dislipemia in the pediatric population, in which blood triglycerids might play an important role. Plant sterols have been shown to be useful in the tratment of hypercholesterolemia, but not of hypertrygliceridemia. Our study focusses on determining the efficacy of phytosterol-supplemented milk for the treatment of hypertriglyceridemia in children. Study Population and Method: we designed a double- blind, randomized, controlled clinical trial on 67 pediatric patients. The treatment group received low-fat, phytosterol-supplemented milk and the control group received low-fat conventional milk.

Results: we observed differences in triglyceridemia between the phytosterol-supplemented group and the non-supplemented group. The effect attributable to the intake of milk supplemented with plant sterols was a reduction of triglyceridemia of 5.88 mg/dl compared with the control group.

Conclusion: we conclude that phytosterol-supplemented milk (2.24 gr of plant sterols daily) might be an adequate tool in the management of hypertriglyceridemia in pediatric patients.