Researchers Clear Shrimp Of Cholesterol Accusations

Shrimp lovers, rejoice!

The popular crustacean, long on the list of foods to avoid because of its high cholesterol count, has received a ringing endorsement from Rockefeller University researchers in New York.

The team of scientists found that eating steamed shrimp did not raise blood cholesterol levels, as had long been feared.

“We were surprised, but pleased, to find that a low-fat diet with shrimp did not impair lipoprotein levels,” said Jan L. Breslow, a co-author of the study and head of the Laboratory of Biochemical Genetics and Metabolism at Rockefeller.

Shrimp is a low-fat but high-cholesterol food that has long been avoided by people worried about blood-cholesterol levels. A 5-ounce serving, for example, contains 150 calories and less than 2 grams of fat, but has 295 milligrams of cholesterol - more than the amount found in one egg yolk, and nearly the daily limit of 300 milligrams recommended by the American Heart Association.

Cholesterol is a fatlike substance found in animal products and also manufactured by the liver. Too much cholesterol can lead to a buildup of plaques in artery walls that can cause a heart attack.

To examine the effects of eating shrimp on blood-cholesterol levels, Breslow and her Rockefeller colleagues recruited 18 healthy volunteers for a nine-week study at the university’s hospital in New York.

Each participant was randomly assigned to one of three diets, which differed only in the amount of cholesterol consumed. Participants rotated through all three diets during the nine-week study.

On one diet, participants consumed about 10 ounces of steamed shrimp per day, or roughly 590 milligrams of cholesterol. On a second diet, participants ate two large, grade-A, hard-boiled eggs daily, containing about 580 milligrams of cholesterol. The third diet contained only 107 milligrams of cholesterol daily.

The study found that both the shrimp and egg diets produced a similar rise in blood levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), the so-called “bad” cholesterol.

But the shrimp diet also produced a greater increase in blood levels of high-density lipoprotein or HDL, the type of cholesterol that helps protect against heart disease. That, in turn, resulted in a better ratio of LDL to HDL, one measure that doctors use to gauge the risk of heart disease.

Shrimp diets also produced lower levels of other blood fats, including triglycerides, which are also linked with an increased risk of heart disease.

“We found that steamed shrimp, high in cholesterol but very low in fat, do not adversely affect the lipoprotein profile in people with normal (blood) cholesterol levels,” said ELizabeth De Oliveira e Silva, lead author of the study. “In fact, if shrimp are substituted for beef or other high-fat foods, we predict even more favorable effects.”