The most common form of phytosterol (PS) fortified foods are fat spreads and dairy products. The predominant fats used are soybean/sunflower (SS) or rapeseed/canola (RC) oils and animal fat (D) in dairy products. This review aimed to investigate whether the carrier fat is a determinant of the hypocholesterolaemic effects of PS fortified foods. Databases were searched using relevant keywords and published RCTs from 1990 investigating the effects of dietary PS intervention (≥ 1.5 g per day) on total cholesterol and LDL-C were included. After methodological quality assessment and data extraction, a total of 32 RCTs (RC, n = 15; SS, n = 9; D, n = 8) were included. As expected, all fat groups significantly reduced TC and LDL-C (p < 0.01). When compared across different carrier fats, RC as the main carrier fat, reduced LDL-C significantly more than the SS spreads (p = 0.01). Therefore, a combination of monounsaturated fatty acid rich spread with adequate amounts of omega-3 fatty acids (as evident in RC spreads) may be the superior carrier fat for the delivery of PS for optimal blood cholesterol-lowering. The findings of this research provide useful evidence for optimising the hypocholesterolaemic effects of PS and support further investigation into the possible mechanisms behind these findings.

植物甾醇（PS）强化食品的最常见形式是脂肪涂抹物和乳制品。乳制品中使用的主要脂肪是大豆/葵花籽油（SS）或菜子/低芥酸菜籽油（RC）和动物脂肪（D）。这项审查旨在调查是否携带脂肪是PS强化食品降胆固醇效果的决定因素。使用相关关键字搜索数据库，并发布1990年以来的RCT，以研究饮食PS干预（每天≥1.5 g）对总胆固醇和LDL-C的影响。经过方法学质量评估和数据提取后，总共包括32个RCT（RC，n = 15； SS，n = 9； D，n = 8）。正如预期的那样，所有脂肪组均显着降低了TC和LDL-C（p <0.01）。比较不同的载体脂肪时，RC是主要的载体脂肪，降低的LDL-C明显大于SS扩散（p = 0.01）。因此，富含单不饱和脂肪酸的涂抹酱与足够量的omega-3脂肪酸（如RC涂抹酱中所示）的组合可能是用于PS输送以降低血液中胆固醇水平的最佳载体脂肪。这项研究的发现为优化PS的降胆固醇作用提供了有用的证据，并支持进一步研究这些发现背后的可能机制。