If you have high cholesterol or you're just conscious of your diet, these are the foods you should avoid.
We might need Cholesterol for our bodies to function properly but having too much of the fatty substance can cause a build-up in our blood vessels.
This build-up can be risky since it makes it harder for our blood to flow properly and eventually increases our risk of heart-related illnesses or strokes.
High Cholesterol is caused by living an unhealthy lifestyle.
@uktoday_ Do you have high cholesterol? What it means and how to reduce yours #uknews #cholesterol #health #gp #healthyliving #CapCut ♬ original sound - UKToday 🇬🇧 Newsquest
This includes eating too many fatty foods and not exercising enough.
Smoking, drinking alcohol and being overweight are also considered causes of high cholesterol too.
If you're trying to bring your cholesterol levels down or you simply want to lead a healthier lifestyle, these are the foods you should be avoiding in your diet.
What foods are bad for your cholesterol?
Mass General Brigham cardiologist Romit Bhattacharya, MD, has shared his expertise on the foods that are bad for our cholesterol.
On the Mass General Brigham website, Dr. Bhattacharya explained that it’s important to look out for animal products.
He noted that we need to particularly watch out for red meat and dairy.
“High-fat dairy is for growing calves,” Dr. Bhattacharya commented.
“It’s for growing infants who need cholesterol and fat in their diet to build their brains, their nerves, their bodies.
"When we’re eating full-fat dairy and meat, we’re ingesting a whole lot of dietary cholesterol—particularly saturated fat, which has consistently proven to increase cholesterol levels.
"So, message number one is this: Decrease your saturated fat intake to at least less than 10% of your daily calories.”
Recommended reading
- Do I have high cholesterol? How to reduce it from a GP
- Dr Michael Mosley reveals 30-second trick that helps with long life and sickness
Given their high saturated fat content, we should be conscious of red meat including beef, pork, lamb processed meats like sausages.
We should also eat full-fat dairy, like cream, whole milk, and butter in moderation as well as baked goods and sweets
Fried foods, and tropical oils such as palm oil, coconut oil and butter are also all high in saturated fat content which means they should be avoided if you have high cholesterol.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here