Heart-healthy recipes
Try our popular heart-healthy recipes, all reviewed by our HEART UK dietitian.
There are several foods which are not just part of a healthy diet, they can actively help to lower your cholesterol too. Try to eat some of these every day as part of your healthy diet. The more you add them to what you eat, the more they can help lower your cholesterol, especially if you cut down on saturated fat as well.
Cutting down on saturated fat and replace some of it with unsaturated fats is great way to lower your cholesterol. Foods which contain unsaturated fats include:
Oily fish are a good source of healthy unsaturated fats, specifically a type called omega-3 fats. Aim to eat two portions of fish per week, at least one of which should be oily. A portion is 140g, but you could have two or three smaller portions throughout the week. Tinned, frozen or fresh all count e.g. salmon, sardines, pilchards, trout, herring and mackerel.
Avoid coconut and palm oil as, unlike other vegetable oils, they are high in saturated fat.
Fruits and vegetables can help reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke and some cancers. They contain vitamins, minerals and plant chemicals which help you to stay healthy, and most contain little or no fat and are low in calories, so they can help you to stay a healthy weight. And, if you are eating more fruit and veg, chances are you're eating less of the other more energy-packed foods.
Fruit and vegetables are also high in fibre, and some types of fibre can help to lower your cholesterol. It blocks some cholesterol from being absorbed from the intestines into the blood stream. Pulses such as beans, peas and lentils are particularly high in this kind of fibre. Sweet potato, aubergine, okra (ladies’ fingers), broccoli, apples, strawberries and prunes are also good options.
Fruits and vegetables can be fresh, tinned, frozen or dried. They all count. If you choose tinned, choose options in juice or water, without added sugar or salt.
Potatoes, yams, cassava and plantains are exceptions. They don’t count because they count as a starchy food, like rice or pasta.
Unsweetened fruit juice and smoothies count too, but only one portion. More than one doesn’t count because the loose sugar and acid in them can damage your teeth.
Sterols and stanols are plant chemicals which are a similar size and shape to cholesterol. They are absorbed from the intestines into the blood stream and block some cholesterol from being absorbed, lowering the cholesterol in your blood.
We get a small amount of sterols from plant-based foods such as vegetable oils, nuts, seeds, whole grains, fruits and vegetables, but it’s not enough to lower cholesterol. So, food companies have developed foods with plant sterols or stanols added to them, such as mini yogurt drinks, fat spreads, milk and yogurts.
These fortified foods lower your cholesterol gradually, over a few weeks, and how much depends on the amount you eat. Some experts believe they are the most effective single food for lowering cholesterol.
Sterols and stanols have been thoroughly researched, so they can be added to foods and are safe to eat.
They are suitable for:
They are not suitable for:
Over three weeks, this could lower your cholesterol by up to 10%. There’s no extra benefit to having more than 3g a day.
Three servings of: OR
One product a day:
To get the most from these foods, eat some every day and eat them with a meal rather than on their own. Look out for products labelled ‘fortified with stanols or sterols’. They can be branded, such as the Flora ProActiv and Benecol ranges, as well as supermarket own products.
Oats and barley are grains which are rich in a type of fibre called beta glucan. Eating 3g of beta-glucan a day as part of a healthy diet and lifestyle can help to lower cholesterol.
When you eat beta glucan, it forms a gel which binds to cholesterol-rich bile acids in the intestines. This helps limit the amount of cholesterol that is absorbed from the gut into your blood. Your liver then has to take more cholesterol out of your blood to make more bile, which lowers your blood cholesterol.
Many products now contain oats, which makes it easier to get your two to four servings. Foods which have a claim on the label saying they lower cholesterol will contain 1g or more of beta glucan.
Nuts are a good source of unsaturated fats and are lower in saturated fats, a mix which can help to keep your cholesterol in check. They contain fibre which can help block some cholesterol being absorbed into the blood stream from the gut, as well as protein, vitamin E, magnesium, potassium, natural plant sterols and other plant nutrients which help keep your body healthy. They’re also filling, so you’re less likely to snack on other things.
All nuts count. Choose a variety and eat them instead of your normal snack or as part of a meal. Where possible, go for the kind with their skins still intact as they contain more nutrients. Good options are:
Soya beans and the foods that are made from them are perfect for a heart-healthy diet. They’re full of protein, vitamins and minerals, and they're low in saturated fat.
Soya products are a good option for replacing foods which are high in saturated fat such as meat, full fat cream and dairy products, and snacks such as crisps.
One serving is: