Almonds, soya beans and fish are all good sources of the essential fatty acids that our bodies need to keep cholesterol levels in our blood at acceptable levels. Even though cholesterol has been given a bad name in the press and the medical profession, you actually need a certain amount of cholesterol in you body as it is essential to many important bodily functions. Like free radicals, which are also needed in the body, it is the over production of cholesterol which can cause problems.



The new cholesterol lowering drugs, the statins, do prevent cardiovascular disease, but this is due to other mechanisms than cholesterol lowering. Unfortunately, they also stimulate cancer in rodents, disturb the functions of the muscles, the heart and the brain and pregnant women taking statins may give birth to children with malformations more severe than those seen after thalidomide.

Your body produces three to four times more cholesterol than you eat. The production of cholesterol increases when you eat little cholesterol and decreases when you eat much. This explains why the prudent diet cannot lower cholesterol more than on average a few per cent.

Cholesterol is a type of fat (lipid) that is found in your blood. It is important because high levels of cholesterol in your blood increase your risk of developing coronary heart disease (CHD one of the most common causes of death and disability in Europe, North America and Australia.

In the UK, about a quarter of deaths in men and one in five deaths in women under the age of 75 years are now caused by CHD, with another 13 to 14 per cent resulting from other related conditions affecting the heart and blood vessels. High rates of CHD occur particularly in the developed world, where lifestyle and dietary factors play important contributory roles. Within Europe, the incidence of CHD is higher in northern than in Mediterranean countries, and this difference is thought to be the result of dietary factors. The incidence of CHD rose after the Second World War, but is now falling in the UK. However, rates are now rising in developing countries, such as Singapore, Malaysia and eastern Europe.

Excesses of cholesterol in some people is actually a genetic disposition and not due to diet. But whether the excess is due to a diet of high cholesterols and saturated fats or a genetic factor, essential fatty acids in the form of omega 3