Are you confused about cholesterol? It’s not surprising, given the amount of bad press that it has had over the years. However, cholesterol is the building block of vitamin D and our steroid hormones, including estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. It’s also a critical component of cell membranes (the layer around the outside of each cell, that influence how well cells can communicate) and is highly concentrated in the brain. Cholesterol is an extremely important substance for numerous biochemical pathways, and many aspects of our health.

Yet, it’s not a case of ‘the more the better’ and when our blood cholesterol levels are too high, it can be an indicator that something has changed and the body needs some more support. And, our daily choices play an enormous role in this.

Support your liver, support your cholesterol levels

The liver is responsible for about 80% of the cholesterol in our blood, while the other 20% comes from what we eat. One approach is to see elevated cholesterol levels as an indicator that the liver needs support.

The good news is simple lifestyle steps can make an enormous difference to liver function. Focus on eating mostly whole foods, including plenty of vegetables. The liver especially loves bitter foods (for example, green leafy vegetables, and Brassica family vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, and brussel sprouts). In addition to this, antioxidant-rich foods (think colourful plant foods like red cabbage, beetroot, berries, kale and spinach) support liver detoxification and are wonderful for quenching an excess of harmful free radicals that can oxidise cholesterol, causing damage—so, the more colourful plants on your plate, the better!

Substances like alcohol, synthetic substances like pesticides and some ingredients in highly processed and refined foods can add to the liver’s task load, so you want to be sure to minimise or eliminate these.

Moving your body regularly also helps to support healthy cholesterol levels—specifically by helping to promote optimal levels of HDL-cholesterol.

Let’s talk about fat

Improving the quality of the fats you consume plays an important role in helping the liver to maintain healthy cholesterol levels, too. As a rule of thumb, good quality fats include those found in whole, real foods, while poor quality fats are typically found in highly processed foods and takeaways.

Omega-3 fatty acids are polyunsaturated fats that have an anti-inflammatory action, and they can also be beneficial for improving the profile of fats in your blood (known as your blood lipid profile). Foods that contain omega-3 fatty acids include oily fish such as salmon (make sure it is wild-caught and not farmed) and sardines, as well as flaxseeds, chia seeds and walnuts. Monounsaturated fats, which are found in avocado, macadamia nuts, olives and extra virgin olive oil are also nourishing options.

When it comes to saturated fat, it is wise to observe how you respond. Some people’s blood cholesterol appears to increase when they increase their intake of saturated fats while for others it doesn’t alter it at all. Having your blood tested and then doing a dietary experiment for three months (either increasing or decreasing your saturated fat intake) before retesting your blood is one way to find out. There isn’t a set amount of saturated fat that is right for everyone. How much will depend on aspects of our biochemical individuality, the efficiency of liver detoxification pathways, as well as other aspects of health, such as how much inflammation is already occurring. In general though, a really large amount of any one type of fat or food isn’t ideal.

The fats you want to avoid are called trans fats—these are formed when liquid vegetable oils undergo a process called hydrogenation during food processing. This process damages the fats and they have been shown to adversely affect our blood lipid profile (including cholesterol levels) and liver health, and are typically found in commercially baked products like biscuits, cakes, pastries, as well as deep-fried foods.

The role of the gut

The efficient elimination of waste is also important for healthy cholesterol metabolism. The best way to support a healthy gut and bowel regularity is with plenty of whole real foods, including plenty of plants. The plants provide your body with a variety of different types of fibres, some of which specifically help to carry old cholesterol out of the body. Foods like oats, beans, barley and psyllium are particularly high in this type of fibre. However, other fibre-rich whole foods are still incredibly beneficial, as some of our gut bacteria use this fibre to produce other substances that can help with keeping blood cholesterol in a health-supportive range.

Other factors that could be at play

Improving the quality of our food intake in a way that supports the liver and gut, plays a vital role in promoting healthy blood cholesterol levels. Think of this as eating in a ‘species-specific’ way.

It can also be helpful to consider the ‘road in’ to any health challenge (meaning, what’s created the health challenge), as we need to understand this in order to know what the best ‘road out’ will be – understand what caused something and address that to correct it.

For example, improvements in cholesterol levels can sometimes happen if our body is better able to convert cholesterol into the other hormones that we require, such as our sex hormones. Zinc is a particularly important nutrient for this conversion, and we want to make sure we are getting enough of this critical nutrient so that the body can optimally utilise our cholesterol. Zinc is found in oysters and red meat (choose biodynamic, organic, grass fed red meats) and there’s a small amount in seeds (especially sunflower and pumpkin seeds) and eggs. Many people today aren’t consuming optimal amounts of zinc which is why supplementation of this mineral is often beneficial. Bio Blends products are all made from food, including Organic Zinc. 

Elevated cholesterol levels can also occur when the thyroid is underactive, so if this is occurring, a thyroid health focus may be what’s required to improve cholesterol metabolism. Even a thyroid gland that isn’t working optimally—not yet a thyroid disease—may potentially have some effect on cholesterol levels (other thyroid-related symptoms are usually present if this is the case).

Very often though, if your blood cholesterol levels are elevated, it can be a sign that your liver needs some additional support and that you could do with a big increase in the amount of vegetables you are eating. And remember, it’s what you do every day that impacts your health, not what you do occasionally – so make sure that your every day choices help to look after that precious liver of yours.