A healthy heart is important to your overall health, and small tweaks to your diet can significantly reduce your risk of heart disease. The Mediterranean diet is the cornerstone – think plenty of plant foods, fish and some red meat with fruit, vegetables, olive oil, chickpeas, nuts and legumes as staples. Your salt and fat intake is also important, with the NHS recommending no more than 6g salt per day. The good news is, with just a few food swaps, you can make your favourite meals more heart friendly.

Cholesterol is a fatty substance in your bloodstream, essential for building healthy cells in your body and making vitamin D and hormones. 

However, problems arise when there’s too much of it. Having high cholesterol can make it difficult for the blood to flow through your arteries as excess cholesterol builds up in the artery walls. This increases your risk of heart disease, heart attack and stroke. 

With no noticeable symptoms, the only way to determine if your levels are high is with a lipid profile blood test. Age and lifestyle factors such as stress and activity levels all contribute to the levels of cholesterol in our bodies – as does what we eat. 

Saturated fats are the ones to watch when it comes to cholesterol levels. Red meat, butter, biscuits, cakes and pastries all raise our blood cholesterol levels. Replacing these with healthy unsaturated fats found in nuts, seeds and avocado can lower cholesterol levels, reducing the ‘bad’ and increasing the ‘good’.