If a person is suffering from high cholesterol it means they have too much of a fatty substance known as cholesterol in their blood. While not initially dangerous, over time this can build up in the blood vessels causing blockages.
This can prevent blood flowing properly through the arteries. For this reason having high cholesterol is a major risk factor for medical emergencies such as strokes and heart attacks.
There are several factors that can contribute to high cholesterol, with diet being one of them. Specifically, eating too much saturated fat can raise your cholesterol levels.
Luckily, making certain changes to your diet can also have the opposite effect. If you are therefore at high risk for high cholesterol or looking to lower your levels, you should reconsider what you are eating.
Two experts spoke exclusively with Express.co.uk about how to slash your cholesterol levels by adjusting your breakfast menu.
Doctor Deborah Lee from the Dr Fox Online Pharmacy and nutritionist Carrie Ruxton revealed the two food and drink combinations best for lowering cholesterol.
Dr Lee recommended starting the day with oats and a cup of green tea.
“One of the best ways to lower cholesterol with diet is to regularly eat oats,” she explained.
“It doesn’t matter which type – rolled, steel-cut, or instant – the effects are very similar.”
Oats are whole grains that contain a thick, viscous soluble fibre called beta-glucan.
Dr Lee continued: “Beta-glucan is sticky, and it binds to bile which contains cholesterol, in the small intestine, preventing it from being reabsorbed into the bloodstream.
“Instead, the bile and cholesterol pass on through the intestines and are excreted in the stool.
“The liver has no choice but to make more bile, for which it uses cholesterol from the bloodstream.”
According to Dr Lee, green tea has an “exceptionally” high polyphenol content.
Polyphenols are “powerful” antioxidants that have specific health benefits for humans.
She said: “Green tea has almost twice the antioxidant content of black tea.
“Those who drink two or more cups of green tea per day have lower total cholesterol levels and a 22 to 33 percent reduction in cardiovascular disease.”
Nutritionist Carrie also recommended starting the day with whole grains, which could include oats.
However, she recommended combining it with orange juice.
“The best breakfast to combat high cholesterol is a whole grain cereal, such as porridge served with a glass of orange juice,” she said.
“While porridge contains a soluble fibre, which lowers ‘bad’ low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, orange juice is rich in polyphenols which have a similar lowering effect on ‘bad’ cholesterol in some clinical studies.”
She added: “Drinking orange juice has also been found to lower blood pressure which helps reduce the risk of strokes and heart attacks.
“Reassuringly, studies have also found no effect on body weight or blood sugar control when people drink a daily glass of fruit juice, showing that it can be part of a balanced diet.
“Scientists believe orange juice has positive health effects because it’s rich in a specific polyphenol, called hesperidin.”
She recommended shop-bought orange juice over homemade.
“Shop-bought orange juice actually contains more hesperidin than home squeezed because the juicers we use in our homes are not powerful enough to get most of the hesperidin out of the oranges,” Carrie said.
If you are concerned about your cholesterol levels you should speak to your doctor.