Four breakfast foods that can slash cholesterol levels, according to experts
Having high cholesterol levels can place you at risk of deadly medical emergencies such as strokes and heart attacks
Why cholesterol is bad for you
If someone is suffering from high cholesterol it means they have too much of a fatty substance known as cholesterol in their blood. While not initially dangerous, over time this can build up in the blood vessels causing blockages.
This can prevent blood flowing properly through the arteries. Therefore, having high cholesterol is a major risk factor for medical emergencies such as strokes and heart attacks.
There are several factors that can contribute to high cholesterol, with diet being one of them. Specifically, eating too much saturated fat can raise your cholesterol levels.
But making certain changes to your diet can also have the opposite effect. With this in mind, experts at Harvard Medical School in the US revealed four breakfast foods you can eat to slash your cholesterol levels.
These foods are:
- Oats
- Beans
- Certain fruit
- Foods fortified with sterols and stanols.
Firstly, they revealed that upping your intake of soluble fibre could help to reduce a type of cholesterol called low-density lipoprotein (LDL), which is also sometimes known as “bad” cholesterol.
This is because soluble fibre can work to “bind” cholesterol in the digestive system and remove it from the body.
They added: “Some give you polyunsaturated fats, which directly lower LDL. And some contain plant sterols and stanols, which block the body from absorbing cholesterol.”
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Oats
Harvard Health Publishing said: “An easy first step to lowering your cholesterol is having a bowl of oatmeal or cold oat-based cereal like Cheerios for breakfast.
“It gives you one to two grams of soluble fibre.”
This advice is backed by experts at the Mayo Clinic, who said: “Oatmeal has soluble fibre, which reduces your low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, the "bad" cholesterol.”
Beans
Harvard Health said: “Beans are especially rich in soluble fibre.
“They also take a while for the body to digest, meaning you feel full for longer after a meal.”
This applies to the humble baked bean, which we love in an English breakfast. However, other beans such as kidney beans, black beans and pinto beans are all rich in soluble fibre.
Fruit
Adding fruit to your breakfast is not only a tasty option but a healthy one. To lower cholesterol, experts at Harvard specifically recommend eating apples, grapes, strawberries and citrus fruit.
They said: “These fruits are rich in pectin, a type of soluble fibre that lowers LDL.”
Foods fortified with sterols and stanols
These include certain margarines, granola bars and orange juice.
“Sterols and stanols extracted from plants gum up the body's ability to absorb cholesterol from food,” Harvard Health said. “Getting two grams of plant sterols or stanols a day can lower LDL cholesterol by about 10 percent.”
