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November 13, 2025

Discover how to learn the natural way to lower your cholesterol.

The Natural Way to Lower Your Cholesterol

High cholesterol is so common these days that it almost feels normal. More than half of UK adults are thought to have it, and atorvastatin—a cholesterol-lowering statin—was England’s most prescribed medication last year. But despite how widespread it is, high cholesterol is still a major risk factor for heart attacks and strokes, and it usually creeps up without any symptoms.

Cholesterol itself isn’t the enemy. Your body needs it for cell repair, vitamin D, and hormones like oestrogen and testosterone. The problems start when levels get too high and fatty deposits begin to clog your arteries.

The type to watch is LDL, the “bad cholesterol.” It can build up inside blood vessels, while HDL—the “good” kind—helps carry LDL away. As Dr Ali Khavandi, a consultant cardiologist at Sulis Hospital, puts it: “This is why we call LDL ‘bad’ and HDL ‘good’.”

NHS guidelines suggest keeping:

• Total cholesterol under 5 mmol/L

• LDL under 4 mmol/L

• HDL above 1.0 mmol/L (men) / 1.2 mmol/L (women)

But Dr Khavandi says these numbers aren’t the whole story. What really matters is your overall risk. For example, a fit 70-year-old woman with slightly raised cholesterol is far less concerning to him than a 50-year-old man with the same readings who’s overweight, drinks a lot and carries most of his weight around the middle. Add smoking or pre-diabetes to the mix, and your risk shoots up.

The good news? Most high cholesterol today is lifestyle-related—which means you can change it. Dr Khavandi says people can often lower their cholesterol by around 20%, and improvements can start appearing within a few weeks.

So what actually helps? Here are some simple, realistic tweaks that can make a big difference.

1. Choose Good Fats, Not “Low-Fat” Labels

Cutting down on saturated fats—think butter, processed meats, pastries—really does help. But instead of reaching for anything marked “low fat,” choose whole foods with healthy fats: oily fish, nuts, olives, avocado, seeds.

Those “light” products are often ultra-processed and full of sugar, low in fibre, and not helpful for cholesterol—or anything else, really.

2. Try a Daily Glass of Tomato Juice

It sounds random, but tomatoes are packed with lycopene, an antioxidant that seems to help lower LDL. Studies have shown that eating lots of tomatoes—or drinking tomato juice—can reduce LDL and even help lower blood pressure. Tinned tomatoes and tomato juice may give you an even more absorbable form of lycopene.

3. Have Porridge for Breakfast

Oats are one of the easiest cholesterol-lowering foods out there. Thanks to beta-glucan, a soluble fibre that grabs onto cholesterol in your gut, oats can help stop it from entering your bloodstream.

In one study, people who added 75g of oats a day cut their LDL by about 10% in a month. Not bad for a bowl of porridge.

4. Get Plant Sterols the Natural Way

Plant sterols and stanols “compete” with cholesterol in your gut, so less of it gets absorbed. You can get them naturally from broccoli, cauliflower, avocados, nuts and seeds.

Fortified spreads may lower cholesterol too, but they’re still processed, and there’s no evidence they reduce your risk of heart attack or stroke. Whole foods win again.

5. Add More Beans and Lentils

It’s not just fat that affects cholesterol—refined carbs do too. Pasta, white bread, sugary cereal and baked potatoes can spike your blood sugar and raise LDL and triglycerides.

Beans, chickpeas and lentils are a brilliant swap: they’re cheap, filling, high in fibre and help the body clear out cholesterol.

6. Keep Alcohol for the Weekend

This one hurts a little, but it’s one of the quickest wins. “Habitual daily drinking—like half a bottle of wine every night—is a big problem,” says Dr Khavandi. Once you regularly drink more than a couple of weekly drinks, your risk rises fast.

Alcohol gets converted into triglycerides and cholesterol in the liver, and too much can lead to fatty liver disease, making it harder for your body to clear cholesterol.

7. Switch Butter for Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Extra virgin olive oil really does live up to the hype. Its monounsaturated fats help lower LDL and raise HDL, and it’s full of antioxidants that protect your arteries.

In a long-term study of about 90,000 people, those who had more than half a tablespoon a day had a 19% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease—and a 29% lower risk of neurodegenerative disease.

You may also be interested in our article Discover Simple Ways to Improve your Nutrition