Cholesterol is one of those words everyone nods along to. You hear it from your GP, you hear it from friends and family, you see it on food packaging, you see it on news or advertisements and you know vaguely that you're supposed to keep it down. But what actually is it?
Here's the honest and simple version…
What is it?
Cholesterol is a waxy, fat-like substance found in every cell in your body. Your liver makes it, and you get some from food too.
Our body makes it on purpose. It's not foreign to our body.
Is cholesterol bad?
No. Your body needs it to work properly. The problem is only when there's too much of it in your blood.
What's HDL and LDL?
Cholesterol can't move around our blood on its own, so it hitches a ride on two different carriers.
LDL is the "bad" one. It drops cholesterol off around your body, and too much of it builds up in your arteries.
HDL is the "good" one. It does the opposite. Collects cholesterol and takes it back to your liver to be cleared out.
Simple version: LDL drops off, HDL clears up.
Why does it matter?
Too much LDL over time narrows your arteries, which raises your risk of heart attack and stroke.
And you generally don't feel it happening. No symptoms. Which is why a blood test is the only way to actually know.
What helps?
Your GP's the person to talk to about your own numbers. Some of it's genetics, not diet.
But if you're looking at food, oats come up more than anything else. They've got a fibre called beta-glucan that traps some cholesterol in your gut and carries it out before it gets into your blood. Around 3g a day is the amount that matters.
Which is about 75g of oats. A fair bit more than most of us are having in one sitting.
So it's not one big bowl. It's bits of it across the day. Barley in a soup, oatcakes instead of crisps, a decent slice of wholegrain. Nuts and seeds help too, for the good fats.
So, breakfast basically
That's what struck me writing this. Oats, nuts, seeds. They're all breakfast food anyway. You don't need to change your whole diet. You just need to not skip the meal.
Which, conveniently, is what we make. Oats, nuts, seeds, no refined sugar. That's basically the whole recipe. If you fancy that sort of breakfast without making it yourself, our flavours are all here. See if any take your fancy.
This is not medical advice. Chat to your GP if you're worried about your cholesterol.
