Adopting healthy habits such as eating a health, balanced diet and keeping active can help stop your cholesterol levels becoming high.

It is important to keep your cholesterol levels in check as high cholesterol levels can lead to an increased risk of heart disease and stroke. If you are concerned about your cholesterol, talk to your GP or Health Professional.

A helpful guide from the British heart foundation about understanding cholesterol https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/publications/heart-conditions/understanding-cholesterol#

 

Understanding Cholesterol

Foods high in saturated fat include	Try replacing with:
meat pies	oily fish – such as mackerel and salmon
sausages and fatty cuts of meat	nuts – such as almonds and cashews
butter, ghee and lard	seeds – such as sunflower and pumpkin seeds
cream	avocados
hard cheeses	vegetable oils and spreads – such as rapeseed or vegetable oil, sunflower, olive, corn and walnut oils
cakes and biscuits	oily fish – such as mackerel and salmon
foods containing coconut or palm oil	nuts – such as almonds and cashews

 

Diet

If your GP has advised you to change your diet to reduce your blood cholesterol, you should cut down on saturated fats and eat more fiber, including plenty of fruit and veg.

British Heart Foundation guide for lowering cholesterol https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/risk-factors/high-cholesterol/five-top-questions-about-lowering-cholesterol

Exercise

An active lifestyle can also help lower your cholesterol level. Activities can range from walking and cycling to more vigorous exercise, such as running and energetic dancing.

Doing 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity every week can improve your cholesterol levels.

Moderate aerobic activity means you’re working hard enough to raise your heart rate and break a sweat.

 

Reducing the total fat of a diet can also help, instead of roasting or frying why not try:-
Grilling
Steaming
Poaching
Boiling
Microwaving

One way to tell whether you’re exercising at a moderate intensity is if you can still talk but cannot sing the words to a song.

Here in LifeTime offer a wide range of activities that can support you in keeping active, including Aerobics, Fit’n’Fun, Yoga, Pilates, Dance & Zumba  which can all  reduce the risk of heart disease and in some cases may even directly affect cholesterol levels in people who took part in regular activity for 3 or more months.

More details on how to reduce your Cholesterol can be found on NHS

More advice can be found on the following websites

NHS.UK

BHF.org.uk

Heartreseach.org.uk