Above all, enjoy your food. Eat a tasty a healthy balanced diet, such as the Mediterranean diet LINK on a regular basis because it is delicious and healthy. And while you do not need to eat any cholesterol, because the body makes it, you can still eat foods that contain cholesterol if they are part of a low fat healthy diet and you are living an active lifestyle. All of the below factors will reduce the risk of heart disease and strokes, in a similar way as the new tomato pill which was launched in June this year.

1.    Regular exercise increases the amount of ‘good’ cholesterol in the body. That means at least 30 minutes daily of brisk walking or another activity that makes you slightly breathless and a little sweaty. If your lifestyle is sedentary – you spend most of your days sitting down – then one hour of moderate exercise is needed every day.

2.    Eat lots of fruit and vegetables (at least 5 portions a day) because they contain antioxidants that help prevent harmful changes to cholesterol that can lead to atherosclerosis and heart disease.

3.    Eat lots of starchy carbohydrate foods such as whole grain breads, pasta, rice, oats and starchy vegetables, plus beans and pulses such as lentils. The fibre (also called NSP or non-starch polysaccharides) in these foods, and in fruit and vegetables, can bind with cholesterol and help remove it from the body.

4.    A balanced diet also requires moderate amounts of protein such as meat, but choose lean red meat, or skinless poultry, or game and cut off visible fat to avoid increasing your saturated fat intake. Good protein choices are also fish or vegetable proteins such as nuts, and eat sparingly sugary and fatty foods. Even though eggs contain cholesterol, they are a good choice and there is now no limit to how many can be eaten each week for a healthy heart – but even so, variety is better than relying on just one food.

5.    Avoid fatty meat products such as pies, pates, sausages and other processed fatty meats because they are high in saturated fat which contributes more to raised cholesterol levels than the amount of cholesterol eaten in foods such as shellfish and offal (e.g. liver).

6.    Saturated fat is also found in “hydrogenated vegetable fats” so avoid products such as biscuits, pies, peanut butters and other processed foods that contain these – check ingredients lists on the label.

7.    Trans fats are another form of harmful saturated fat that raises cholesterol levels, so choose spreads and readymeals and other processed foods that state they are “free from trans fats” on the label.

8.    A balanced diet also contains dairy food for calcium, a mineral needed by the heart and for healthy bones, but choose low fat dairy milk, yogurt and so on to avoid the saturated fat in full-fat versions.

9.    Alcohol in small amounts can also raise levels of ‘good’ cholesterol, and red wine in particular additionally contains antioxidants that help prevent hardening of the arteries by damaged cholesterol. However, even one unit of alcohol per day can raise the risk of certain cancers by a small amount. So drink only in moderate, sticking to “safe” levels of not more than 28 units per week for men, with alcohol-free days; and 21 units for women. and you don’t have to drink!

10.    Replace the saturated fats in your diet (lard, deep fried foods, processed foods) with polyunsaturates from vegetable oils, or monounsaturates from olive oil, rapeseed oil and nuts. Eat fish twice a week, one being oily fish (e.g. mackerel, salmon, tuna) for omega-3 heart-healthy fats. Omega 3 is also in sunflower and soy oil and walnuts and linseed oils.