Cholesterol lowering meal ideas, including snacks

[IncyWincy90]

Hello!
My husband has recently been told that he has raised cholesterol and we’re looking at reducing it through diet alone. Does anyone have any meal ideas please, as we seem to be having the same thing over again and we’re finding it’s getting quite boring! (He’s not the biggest fan of fish). TIA 😊

Did he eat a lot of foods high in cholesterol previously? If so, focus on those. If not, diet may not make much difference. Most cholesterol is made in the liver, as it's essential to hormone production. In many cases, there's not much you can do in terms of diet, and nothing you can do that through diet that will lower his internal production of cholesterol.

Black bean chilli with avocado chunks www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/236609/black-bean-chilli
Jerk sweet potato and bean curry www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2835667/jerk-sweet-potato-and-black-bean-curry
Turkey stir fry www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/826637/noodles-with-turkey-green-beans-and-hoisin
Tofu and black bean stir fry www.cauldronfoods.co.uk/recipes/tofu-and-black-bean-stir-fry

This is a great alternative to eggs for breakfast www.heartuk.org.uk/tasty-recipes/recipe-detail/55-spiced-tofu-scramble-toasts

I’ve reduced the meat i eat to only once or twice a week and in combination with getting 10000 steps a day, I’ve reduced my cholesterol by 10% in 2 years. They were the only 2 things in my life that had changed.

@MissConductUS his diet was horrendous before, so by cutting out crisps, biscuits and processed foods etc we’re hoping it will reduce it! I didn’t realise that most cholesterol was made in the liver. They won’t recheck through the NHS for a year but I think he can have a total cholesterol checked through most pharmacies, do you know if this is worth it or better to wait for the blood test?

@Ricekrispie22 thank you for those ideas, we’ll definitely give them a try!

@ComeOnGordon what have you replaced the meat with? Do you eat more fish instead? It’s amazing how these changes can make such a difference!

I would eat more fish if I was just cooking for me but I’ve been cooking for my teenager as well and she’s trying to turn vegetarian. So lots of veggie dinners which I was a bit skeptical about at first but I’m really enjoying it now. I love crisps but try to only have them at the weekend. I’m genetically predisposed to having high cholesterol from my crap genes so really try to keep under control

@IncyWincy90 There are a lot of common misconceptions about cholesterol. It's not found in any plant based foods, so I have a laugh when I see olive oil labeled as cholesterol free. Here's a great list of what you can do to manage cholesterol without medications:

Top 5 lifestyle changes to improve your cholesterol

Some people still simply produce too much and may need medication, but these changes should help. I'm not familiar with the test done in the pharmacy (I don't think we have that in the US), but if it's reliable by all means have it done in a few months.

can't think of meals exactly but

edamame beans, salmon, rapeseed oil, porridge oats, oat milk, avocado, lentils, peas, beans, mackerel, lean chicken and lean pork. Plenty of good monounsaturated fat, very low on saturated fat basically

Thank you everyone 😊. We’ll give these all a try!