cholesterol reduction

[thomas.young]

what is the ingredient in some butter that reduces cholesterol and makes it four or five times the price of ordinary butter?

[Jugglering]

I've not heard of a cholesterol lowering butter but there are a few cholesterol lowering margarines around - do you mean Benecol and the like ? They contain plant sterols which reduce the amount of cholesterol absorbed by the gastro-intestinal system. (The sterols are manufactured from a waste product of the wood pulp industry known as oil soap.)

Why they are so expensive, I have no idea, presumably the manufacturers would claim that they've had to amend their production line and put in extra ingredients but maybe it's just because they can get away with it... a lot of people would rather change the marge they ate than take tablets.