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A Johns Hopkins-trained cardiologist who recognized that diet was responsible for much of the high cholesterol, high blood pressure and high blood sugar she saw in her patients has designed a line of snack foods intended to help.

Called Step One Foods, the products contain omega-3 oils, plant sterols, fiber and antioxidants that come from dried fruit, nuts and seeds as well as oat fiber to help bring down cholesterol naturally.

Dr. Elizabeth Klodas, the cardiologist, together with researchers from the Mayo Clinic and the University of Manitoba, designed a double-blind randomized crossover clinical trial to test the products in adults with high cholesterol.

Participants spent four weeks consuming the test products, four weeks eating normally, and four weeks testing calorie-matched similar items from grocery stores.

The results, published in the Journal of Nutrition in February, found 80% of participants lowered their LDL (bad) cholesterol an average of 8.8% and overall cholesterol by 5% by replacing two servings of other foods already in their daily diet with their choice of two Step One products.

The authors concluded that the snacks, “containing a compendium of cholesterol-lowering bioactive compounds can rapidly and meaningfully reduce LDL cholesterol in adult patients unable or unwilling to take statin drugs.”

The products include a variety of snack bars (such as cranberry pecan, dark chocolate walnut and apple cinnamon), as well as a line of breakfast foods including instant oatmeal, a smoothie mix, pancakes and sprinkles (for yogurt, etc.). They are gluten, sodium and dairy free and certified kosher.

Because the foods lower cholesterol via a different mechanism than statins do, Step One Foods claims the products can also be used by those who take the drugs, but may enable a reduced dose.

They urge users to work with their healthcare provider and to have a baseline cholesterol test before starting the products and again after 30 days to check for results.