Forty percent of people in the UK and US have high cholesterol. Knowing how to lower it can be confusing. In today’s episode, we simplify the science of cholesterol, drawing from ZOE’s 2021 PREDICT study, which explored its link to the gut microbiome.
Dr. Sarah Berry explains the differences between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ cholesterol, discusses how cholesterol can impact your health, and shares tips on maintaining healthy cholesterol levels.
Sarah is a professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at King's College London and Chief Scientist at ZOE. She is also the lead nutritional scientist on the PREDICT program.
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Timecodes
00:00 Introduction
01:40 Quickfire questions
04:01 What is cholesterol?
05:50 LDL vs HDL cholesterol
11:35 How diet affects cholesterol
13:55 Which fats should you increase?
16:00 Why do some people have high LDL levels?
18:40 The gut microbiome and cholesterol
20:37 What is ApoB?
24:00 Why don’t all doctors measure ApoB?
25:50 Why triglycerides matter to your health
29:30 Triglycerides and post-meal responses
30:45 Which foods can help lower cholesterol?
33:20 Saturated fat explained
35:30 How refined carbs affect cholesterol
39:50 Can you trust ‘low fat’ food labels?
41:15 The benefits of whole grain carbohydrates and fibre
45:03 Sarah’s personal view on statins
48:13 Cholesterol levels in postmenopausal women
Books by our ZOE Scientists:
Every Body Should Know This by Dr Federica Amati
Food For Life by Prof. Tim Spector
Fibre Fuelled by Dr Will Bulsiewicz
Free resources from ZOE:
Live Healthier: Top 10 Tips From ZOE Science & Nutrition
Gut Guide - for a healthier microbiome in weeks
Mentioned in today's episode
What are triglycerides and why do you need them
Does variation in serum LDL-cholesterol response to dietary fatty acids help explain the controversy over fat quality and cardiovascular disease risk? Atherosclerosis VOL 328
Determination of variability in serum low-density lipoprotein cholesterol response to the replacement of dietary saturated fat with unsaturated fat, Proceedings of the Nutrition Society.
Dietary saturated fat and cholesterol: cracking the myths around eggs and cardiovascular disease, J Nutr Sci. 2023
The effects of probiotics on total cholesterol, Medicine (Baltimore)
Microbiome connections with host metabolism and habitual diet from 1,098 deeply phenotyped individuals (Zoe’s PREDICT study)
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Episode transcripts are available here.
How to lower cholesterol in 10 days | Prof. Sarah Berry | ZOE Science & Nutrition podcast - Listen or read transcript on Metacast
