This Food Replaces Statin Cholesterol Drugs

Statins are hard cholesterol-lowering drugs with serious, potentially deadly side effects.

But a new study now shows that one type of statin can be naturally obtained from your food… without side effects!

In a new study from Sriwijaya University in Indonesia, this food was found to drop cholesterol by a whopping 60%.

Lovastatin is a statin that can cause abdominal pain, nausea, constipation or diarrhea, muscle pain and weakness, and so forth.

But lovastatin also reduces the amount of an enzyme called HMG-CoA reductase in your body. HMG-CoA reductase plays a big part in your body’s manufacturing of cholesterol, so reducing it prevents your body from making too much cholesterol.

Lovastatin also occurs naturally in some food types in smaller amounts, so the researchers wondered whether this natural form of it could do the same physiological job.

The Indonesian scientists identified fermented fish as a food type that contains lovastatin.

In Indonesia, carp fish fermented by the bacterium lactobacillus acidophilus is a popular fish paste called bekasam, so they started there.

They made their own bekasam by gutting and washing carp fish and then leaving it in a culture of lactobacillus acidophilus for 30 minutes.

They then removed it from the bacteria, mixed it with salt and rice, and left it to ferment for seven days.

They then applied the paste to HMG-CoA reductase enzymes in the laboratory and discovered that it could reduce the presence of this enzyme by an amazing 60%.

Unfortunately, the bacterium lactobacillus acidophilus is not freely available in shops, so you will have to make your fish without it.

Sauerkraut contains plenty of bacteria from the lactobacillus family, so you can add small pieces of carp or mackerel to the leftover liquid in a sauerkraut jar, add your favorite herbs and spices, and leave it in the fridge for a few days.

If this sounds too unappetizing, a fermented Chinese tea called pu-erh, oyster mushrooms, or red yeast rice (another Chinese delicacy) also contain lovastatin.

But there is a much simpler way to eliminate cholesterol plaque buildup in your arteries. It involves cutting out one ingredient you didn’t even realize you were consuming…