Yoghurt enriched with Lactobacillus acidophilus does not lower blood lipids in healthy men and women with normal to borderline high serum cholesterollevels

Objective: To investigate whether intake of Lactobacillus acidophilus strai n L-1 lowers serum cholesterol in healthy men and women. Design: Randomised, placebo-controlled parallel trial. Setting: Subjects were free-living. Blood sampling and distribution of yogh urts were administered at a local hospital. Subjects: Seventy-eight adult men and women with cholesterol levels of 3.9- 7.8 mmol/L (mean +/- s.d., 5.4 +/- 0.7). Interventions: Subjects consumed 500 mt of control yoghurt daily for two we eks. They were then randomly allocated to receive 500 mt per day of control yoghurt or of yoghurt enriched with Lactobacillus acidophilus L-I for anot her six weeks. The yoghurts were spiked with a trace of lithium; compliance as assessed by plasma lithium was excellent. Results: Energy and nutrient intake was constant, and identical for the two groups. Mean body weight was stable. Baseline blood lipid concentrations i n the control and treatment groups were highly similar. The effect of consu mption of Lactobacillus acidophilus L-l E's control on total cholesterol wa s -0.02 mmol/L (95% CI, - 0.18-0.15) after three weeks and 0.04 mmol/L (95% CI, - 0.12-0.20) after six weeks. Serum LDL and HDL cholesterol and triacy lglycerol levels were also unaffected. Conclusions: Yoghurt enriched with Lactobacillus acidophilus L-l does not l ower serum cholesterol in men and women with normal to borderline high chol esterol levels.