What to eat and what to avoid

Thankfully, having high cholesterol doesn’t necessarily mean you should avoid all cholesterol-rich foods.

Recent research has found that specific cholesterol-rich foods, such as full-fat milk, yogurt and aged cheese, might actually improve blood lipid (fat) profiles, and therefore cholesterol levels.

First, you must understand why your cholesterol levels are raised in the first place, as Dr Ali Khavandi, a Bath-based consultant interventional cardiologist, explains.

“If you have a genetic predisposition to high blood cholesterol levels, diet has very little influence so medication, such as statins, is usually required,” he says. “Even for an ‘average’ person with raised cholesterol who is otherwise healthy, eating low-cholesterol foods is likely to have a limited effect.

“But if you are overweight and have some level of insulin resistance or other associated conditions, you can absolutely impact your cholesterol through dietary intervention, but usually, it comes down to adopting a healthy dietary pattern rather than avoiding certain high cholesterol foods.”

Let’s break it down. Which high cholesterol foods should you include in your diet – and which are best avoided?

Five foods high in dietary cholesterol to include in your diet

1. Cheese

Dr Khavandi is clear on this one: “Everyone thinks that cheese is a disaster. I often hear people say ‘my cholesterol is high, so I shouldn’t eat cheese’, but there’s good data that long-fermented cheeses [such as aged cheddar] are beneficial”. While cheese is high in cholesterol, it is also a rich source of vitamins (A, K, B12), minerals (calcium, phosphorus, magnesium), and gut-friendly probiotics. Indeed, a study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation found that participants with metabolic syndrome who followed a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet that included 200g of cheese per day had improved blood lipid profiles after four weeks.

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