Quorn Blog

We’ve recently been involved in a fascinating live experiment to find out exactly how much people can benefit by regularly incorporating Quorn™ products into their diet.  We know that Quorn mince and pieces can play an important role in a healthy diet, but we wanted to ‘take it to the streets’ and find out just how useful it is!

Twenty one people in Croydon were challenged to eat Quorn mince or pieces every day for six weeks to see what difference it made to their cholesterol levels.  They were given plenty of recipes to keep things exciting and to make sure everyone’s taste was catered for.  In keeping with the community spirit, some of the team here decided that they would give this experiment a go themselves for that ‘up close and personal’ experience.

Past studies have suggested that mycoprotein – the unique ingredient in all Quorn products – helps to reduce cholesterol, and may have other health benefits too.  But this was the first time anyone had looked at the benefits of mycoprotein in real life rather than in a controlled experiment.

The Quorn Close results were amazing.  Overall, participants reduced their total cholesterol by more than 11 per cent, but the ten people who started the trial with higher levels of cholesterol saw a drop of over 35 per cent!  Reductions in LDL (bad) cholesterol were 13 per cent in the overall group and 29 per cent in the higher cholesterol group.

For our office experiment, Before taking part the team here had cholesterol tests. Some were amazed to see that despite enjoying what they thought was a good diet and healthy lifestyle, their cholesterol levels were still very high.  Although the guys in the office weren’t scientifically monitored, some said they lost a bit of weight and several saw their cholesterol levels reduced at the end of the six weeks.  It has to be said, eating a Quorn meal every night for six weeks was a bit of a stretch – some people fell off the bandwagon at certain points, especially because our office experiment wasn’t part of the proper trial - but overall, I think people agreed that including Quorn as part of a varied and balanced diet has tangible health benefits.

Let us know if you have any good advice or success stories about reducing your cholesterol.

P.S. The British Nutrition Institute published an interesting report which suggests that a diet rich in mycoprotein could help reduce cholesterol levels.  These articles in the Daily Mail and Telegraph are worth a read.

And if you want to find out more about mycoprotein, visit www.mycoprotein.org