High cholesterol: Nutritionist reveals top prevention tips

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You are what you eat – and this certainly applies to cholesterol. But did you know you can help your heart and lower your cholesterol simply by eating certain foods? You’ll also need to eat less fatty foods, cut out alcohol and cigarettes, and stop eating so much fried, processed and sugary foods. Express.co.uk chatted to Dr Deborah Lee from Dr Fox Online Pharmacy to find out the TWO foods that will lower your cholesterol.

High cholesterol is when you have too much of a fatty substance called cholesterol in your blood, and this is mainly caused by eating specific types of food, not exercising enough, being overweight, smoking and drinking alcohol.

Cholesterol-filled foods include full-fat dairy foods, animal fats and spreads, fatty meat and processed meat products.

Lowering cholesterol reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease – angina, heart attacks, heart failure and strokes.

If you’ve been told you have high cholesterol, you’ll need to start by changing up your diet.

Express.co.uk chatted to Dr Lee to find out the TWO foods that will lower your cholesterol.

The TWO foods that will lower your cholesterol

Need to lower your cholesterol? Dr Lee as well as Heart UK and The British Heart Foundation advocate upping your intake of plant sterols and stanols.

These are naturally occurring substances found in plants, which are very similar in structure to cholesterol, Dr Lee said.

She explained: “When plant sterols and stanols are ingested as part of the diet, they compete with real dietary cholesterol for absorption in the intestines, and as a result, less cholesterol is absorbed into the bloodstream.

“After absorption, most of the plant sterols and stanols are excreted back into the intestines (some are excreted through liver metabolism in the bile).”

Plant stanols or sterols have been proven in a 2003 meta-analysis of 41 clinical trials to be successful at reducing cholesterol, according to Dr Lee.

The trials found ingesting just 2g a day of stanols or sterols will reduce total cholesterol by 10 percent.

You can reduce LDL (bad) cholesterol by 20 percent if you eat a low cholesterol diet on top of this.

if you are already taking statins when you add in a daily dose of stanols and sterols, this can have the same effect as it would if you doubled your dose of statins.

Although plant sterols and stanols do lower cholesterol – it does have to be said that there have not been studies that actually confirm this outcome, but it is believed to be true.

Which foods contain plant sterols and stanols?

Some food manufacturers have produced food items that are fortified with extra plant sterols and stanols.

These are different types of milk, yoghurt drinks, yoghurts, fat spreads, soft cheeses, and cereal bars.

To get the cholesterol-lowering 3g, Dr Lee recommends daily consumption of either:
Two teaspoons of fat spread, or one 50ml glass of milk.

One 120g yoghurt, or one 65 to 100g bottle of yoghurt mini-drink, or one cereal bar

Dr Lee said: “The two most well-known brands are Benecol and Flora Proactiv, although some supermarkets have their own ranges.”

Anyone who has raised cholesterol and wants to lower it can benefit from fortified products.

However, you don’t need the additional cholesterol-lowering benefit if your cholesterol is in the normal range.

You will benefit the most if you have familial hypercholesterolaemia or if you are already taking statins.

You shouldn’t regularly eat products fortified with sterols and stanols during childhood, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, or are taking Ezetrol (Ezetimibe) as this has the same mode of action.

How much do you need to lower cholesterol?

The recommended maximum dose is 3g sterols or stanols per day.

Dr Lee said: “Increasing the dose any further than this is unlikely to reduce cholesterol any further and may result in failure to absorb essential vitamins from the intestines.”

However, it is important to note that you can’t rely on plant sterols and stanols in isolation.
Dr Lee said: “You also need to eat a low cholesterol diet, which means choosing low-fat options, eating less red meat, fatty meat, and processed foods.

“Also eating healthy unsaturated fats found in vegetable oils, seeds, and nuts.

“Avoid food that contains trans fats – these are fats that are solid at room temperatures such as butter, lard, or ghee.

“Foods that contain large amounts of trans fats include cakes, pastries, biscuits, and desserts.”

Other things you can do to lower your cholesterol are doing more physical exercise and stopping smoking.

Dr Lee said: “Being physically active has a favourable effect on cholesterol, to lower LDL cholesterol and raise HDL cholesterol.

“Exercise also helps you lose visceral fat (abdominal fat), lowers your blood pressure, and reduces your risk of type-2 diabetes”

Cigarette smoke contains a toxic substance called acrolein which interferes with the way your body metabolises LDL bad cholesterol.

Dr Lee pointed out: “When you stop smoking, your LDL cholesterol levels are likely to fall.

Smoking also lowers HDL ‘good’ cholesterol, so when you stop smoking your HDL cholesterol will tend to rise.”

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