The 5 best food swaps to lower cholesterol, protect your heart and to live longer | Dr. Alice Lichtenstein

Is fat good or bad for your heart? For decades, we blamed fat and cholesterol for clogged arteries and heart attacks. Now you choose low-fat yogurt to protect your heart, while others cook with beef tallow. In this episode, Dr. Alice Lichtenstein, a world-leading expert on dietary fat and heart health, helps settle the debate. Dr. Lichtenstein explains which fats protect your heart and which to cut back on, you'll learn what raises your cholesterol, and why the type of fat you eat matters more than how much of it you eat. You’ll leave the episode with some practical food swaps to protect your heart and live longer. Have you swapped butter for "low-fat" alternatives loaded with sugar? Could that choice be working against your heart? 🌱 Try our science-backed and tasty wholefood supplement Daily30 🌿Let your gut microbes snack on the ZOE Gut Health Bar Build healthy habits. Download the ZOE app today and start your trial for just £2.30 for your first week. 👉 Join ZOE Follow ZOE on Instagram. Timecodes 00:00 Intro 01:33 The most common myth about fat, busted in one word 03:20 What fat actually is, and why your body needs it to survive 11:29 Why butter and beef tallow turn solid at room temperature 13:12 How saturated fat raises your risk of heart disease 15:36 Heart attack or stroke: which one saturated fat actually raises 17:12 Are all saturated fats equally bad for you? 20:07 The flawed rabbit study that shaped decades of egg advice 21:41 What actually makes your cholesterol go up 24:04 How high cholesterol quietly clogs your arteries 27:04 The 1960s study that proved swapping fat saves lives 30:32 How your liver secretly turns sugar into fat 32:37 The verdict on beef tallow and butter 36:32 Simple food swaps for a heart-healthy diet 38:10 Does eating more fat make you gain weight? 40:35 The truth about grass-fed beef and omega-3 42:53 Is beef tallow really a healthy fat? 44:40 Is fermented dairy actually healthy? 45:19 The checklist to delay premature aging 47:52 The pantry check that could improve your heart health 49:56 The 1990s mistake we made with low-fat yogurt 51:47 Why knowing your cholesterol numbers matters most 📚Books by our ZOE Scientists The Food For Life Cookbook Every Body Should Know This by Dr Federica Amati The Appetite Reset by Dr Federica Amati Food For Life by Prof. Tim Spector Ferment by Prof. Tim Spector Good Mood Food (preorder) by Prof. Tim Spector Free resources from ZOE The Smart Snacking Guide: How to feed your gut, fuel your day, and snack without guilt The Hormone Harmony Guide: Tuning Your Body’s Internal Orchestra Eating for Better Brain Health: Your brain-gut blueprint How to eat in 2026 - Discover ZOE’s 8 nutrition principles for long-term health Live Healthier: Top 10 Tips From ZOE Science & Nutrition Gut Guide - For a Healthier Microbiome in Weeks Better Breakfast Guide Mentioned in today's episode Dietary trans fatty acids and cardiovascular disease risk, Current Atherosclerosis Reports (2014) Unsaturated fats, high-quality carbs lower risk of heart disease, American College of Cardiology (2015) Effect of Low-Carbohydrate and Low-Fat Diets on Coronary Heart Disease, JACC (2026) Rabbit models for the study of human atherosclerosis, Pharmacology & Therapeutics (2014) Have feedback or a topic you'd like us to cover? Let us know here. Episode transcripts are available here.