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?

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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

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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

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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)

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Episode transcripts are available here.