Having high cholesterol is something we probably all want to avoid. It means you have too much of a fatty substance known as cholesterol in your blood.
While this is not initially life-threatening, over time this can build up in the blood vessels. This can cause blockages and prevent blood flowing properly through the arteries.
As a result, having high cholesterol is a major risk factor for medical emergencies such as strokes and heart attacks. Like many medical conditions, there are several factors that can contribute to high cholesterol, with diet being one of them.
More specifically, eating too much saturated fat can raise your cholesterol levels. However, making certain changes to your diet can also lower your cholesterol levels.
With this in mind, one expert shared a tasty superfood breakfast that could do just this. Writing for the charity Heart Care Healthy Living, based in Walsall, exercise physiologist Ryan Hodgkinson recommended anyone with high cholesterol try eating overnight oats for breakfast.
Overnight oats are a breakfast or snack made by soaking oats in liquid overnight – such as water, milks or yoghurt, instead of cooking them in the morning. Especially tasty when loaded with fruit and flavourings such as honey, they have become a go-to breakfast for many people in recent years.
Ryan recommended combining the oats with yoghurt and milk for the best cholesterol-lowering results. He explained: “Overnight oats are a great way to start the day, oats help to lower blood cholesterol and are naturally low in saturated fat. They are very satiating, so they fill you up and help to stop you needing a snack.”
The reason why oats are so good for you is because they are rich in a type of fibre called beta-glucan, which has proven cholesterol-lowering benefits. Heart UK states that eating three grams of beta-glucan each day, as part of a healthy diet and lifestyle, can lower blood cholesterol.
“When you eat beta-glucan, it forms a gel in the gut which traps cholesterol-rich bile acids,” Heart UK says. “This means less cholesterol passes from the gut into the bloodstream. Your liver then has to take more cholesterol out of your blood to make more bile, which lowers your blood cholesterol.”
When it comes to picking the yoghurt to use in your overnight oats, the British Heart Foundation (BHF) recommends picking a low fat option. It says: “To make sure you are choosing the healthiest option, look for the words ‘no added sugar’ and ‘100 percent milk’ on the tub. And check that the only ingredients are ‘milk’ and ‘live cultures’.
“You will also see yoghurt with ‘low-fat’ or ‘0% fat’ labels. Whether these are healthier than full-fat milk yoghurt is being looked at by scientists. For now, the UK government advises choosing low-fat. This is because low-fat yogurt has less saturated fat in it than full-fat yoghurt, which helps keep your cholesterol levels down.
“It also has fewer calories, which helps with weight loss. But watch out for low-fat fruit yoghurts as they often have a lot of sugar in them.”
Ryan’s overnight oats recipe is as follows:
- Rolled oats – 40g
- Fat free natural yoghurt – 100g
- Skimmed or semi-skimmed milk – 100ml
- Flaxseed mix – 1tsp
- Toppings of your choice – such as blueberries, raspberries and cinnamon
If you are concerned about your cholesterol levels you should speak to your doctor.