Vegetable lecithins and their effects on lipid metabolism
What it found
Vegetable lecithin supplements improved cholesterol and lipoprotein levels in people, especially those with high blood lipids.
The evidence on how they affect fat digestion and absorption is mixed.
What they found
Studies in people
Cholesterol and lipoprotein levels
Taking lecithin supplements improved cholesterol and lipoprotein levels in the blood and liver. This was especially clear in people with high blood lipids.
Studies in people and animals
Fat digestion and absorption
Studies on how vegetable lecithins affect the digestion and absorption of fats have given conflicting results.
Other findings
Composition varies widely
Vegetable lecithins differ a lot in their makeup, which gives them a wide range of biochemical and biological properties. Many of these properties have not yet been studied in detail.
Non-soy lecithins understudied
There is a clear lack of data on vegetable lecithins other than soy, both as supplements and as ingredients in different foods.
What the authors conclude
“Despite controversial data concerning the impact of vegetable lecithins on lipid digestion and intestinal absorption, the beneficial effect of lecithin supplementation on plasma and hepatic lipoprotein and cholesterol levels is unequivocal.”
Also in their conclusions
- They say that future research is urgently needed to work out how individual fatty acids and phospholipids from different vegetable lecithins affect fat metabolism.
- They advise that researchers should also assess how these lecithins influence things linked to metabolic disorders, such as gut lining health, mild inflammation and gut bacteria.
- They note that the beneficial effect of lecithin supplements on blood and liver cholesterol and lipoprotein levels is unequivocal, especially in people with high blood lipids.
How it was done
Vegetable lecithins are widely used as emulsifiers in food and contain phospholipids with important body effects. The authors wanted to review how they affect fat and cholesterol processing and whether they could help with metabolic disorders.
The authors reviewed existing studies on how different vegetable lecithins affect lipid and lipoprotein metabolism, including their potential use in treating unhealthy cholesterol levels linked to metabolic disorders.
What it can’t tell you
- We summarised it from the abstract only.
- This is a review of other studies, so it cannot show cause and effect on its own.
- The studies behind it used different lecithin types and different people, so the results may not apply to every product on the shelf.
- Most of the research is on soy lecithin, so little is known about other vegetable lecithins.
Who paid
- Conflicts
- Declaration of competing interest C.V. and L.C. are employees of ITERG. C.R. is a PhD student hired by ITERG (CIFRE doctoral grant). M.-C.M. received research fundings for other topics from Sodiaal-Candia R&D, the Centre National Interprofessionnel de l’Economie Laitière (CNIEL, French Dairy Interbranch Organization) and Nutricia Research and has consultancy activities for food & dairy companies. These activities had no link with the present review. M.-C. M. is an external expert member of the Scientific Committee of ITERG. All authors are members of UMT ACTIA BALI (BioAvailability of Lipids and Intestine).
- Authors work at
- Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France
The paper
- Title
- Vegetable lecithins: A review of their compositional diversity, impact on lipid metabolism and potential in cardiometabolic disease prevention
- Type
- ReviewThe authors read earlier studies and describe what they found. It isn’t a new study.
- Evidence
- Studies in people · animals · lab
- Summarised from
- Abstract only
- Cite
- Robert C, Couëdelo L, Vaysse C, Michalski MC (2020). Vegetable lecithins: A review of their compositional diversity, impact on lipid metabolism and potential in cardiometabolic disease prevention. Biochimie. doi:10.1016/j.biochi.2019.11.017PubMed 31786232DOI
Summary written 26 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error