HeartActive is a delicious, 99% fat free milk enriched with plant sterols, which are proven to help reduce cholesterol. Research shows that consuming plant sterols everyday in milk can reduce cholesterol by an average of 10% in three weeks. HeartActive is currently available in a 1L carton with an extended shelf life (45 days from production) compared to regular white milks with a shelf life of 14 days.

We’ve come to the end of this series of posts focussing on the importance of low cholesterol and your health; so I thought I’d finish the series with a recap of the monthly posts, discuss the importance of maintaining low cholesterol and share how I’m going to continue to work on it.

At the beginning of the series I realised that it was time to take my health more seriously and paid a much-overdue visit to my doctor requesting an overall check-up. While my BP remained high and I’m obviously still very overweight – most of my other blood test results were fine; however my cholesterol levels were a teensy bit high.

I quickly learnt that high cholesterol, combined with my high BP and weight issues put me at risk of a heart attack so I decided to do something about it.

Firstly I took control of my health (for a change) by learning a bit more about how to reduce my cholesterol levels. This led me to examine factors contributing to high cholesterol, including the levels of cholesterol in foods.

I was particularly interested to discover that I’d probably just equated high fat with high cholesterol in the past without knowing much more. Fortunately although I indulge in a few of the worst contenders (ie. fast food), my biggest issue was my consumption of eggs – my go-to healthy food. I confessed it wasn’t unusual to have an egg for brekkie every day (which I do) AND an egg (or two) scrambled for lunch. And even sometimes an egg custard for dessert! The general consensus seems to be that six eggs a week is okay – so one of my priorities then was to revisit my breakfast options and I called out to my readers for suggestions.

I was also happy to discover that there are foods (with added plant sterols) which actively lower cholesterol – like Dairy Farmers’ own HeartActive.

So, armed with all of this knowledge I thought I’d wrap this series by sharing MY plan to maintain or (if possible) lower my current cholesterol levels:

1. Continue working towards a healthier weight and exercising regularly (the biggie!)

2. Purposely choosing low cholesterol foods where possible (fish, legumes and so forth)

3. Mixing up my breakfasts a bit more. Not seeing eggs as ‘the healthiest thing I could possibly eat’

4. Opting for foods fortified by plant sterols – such as milk and margarine/butter. (I mean, if there’s an option to actively lower my cholesterol just by switching products… then I’m in! And this is something I’ve already started).

Of course, some are easier than others, but I like to think that some of the small changes I’ve already made will help prevent adding ‘high cholesterol’ to the things I need to address in the future.

Do you find making small changes less overwhelming than big ones? Or are you a ‘rip-that-bandaid-off-quickly’ kind of person?
Has this series of posts helped you learn more about cholesterol or heart health?