5 ways to cut your cholesterol
WITH THE HAIRY BIKERS
Motorbike-loving cooks the Hairy Bikers are on a mission… to help the middle-aged reduce their risk of heart disease.
Si King, 52, and Dave Myers, 61, reckon healthy living in 2019 need not be complicated.
Instead they want to help people get real about what they put on their plates every night.
Now the pair are fronting a new campaign by Benecol to highlight the importance of lowering cholesterol and maintaining a healthy diet.
The TV chefs each lost three stone after having major health scares – and are keen to pass on their wisdom.
“Something had to change,” Dave says. “Food is our passion and always will be – but we were morbidly obese. We hope that people can take something from what we’re saying.”
Strictly Come Dancing star Dave and his sidekick Si quit life in the fat lane after they were told they both needed blood-pressure tablets and statins to keep their cholesterol levels under control.
Dave had ballooned to 17st 12lb, while Si was 19st 6lb.
“My blood sugar was borderline for Type 2 diabetes,” Dave explains. “And I was 40 per cent fat. That was a real wake-up call.”
Si, who had a brain aneurysm in 2014, admits: “What tends to happen when you get ill is you think, ‘Wow, I have a responsibility here’.
“And that responsibility is to yourself and to your family to look after your health.
“I want to be an 80-year-old who goes out and walks the dog.
“I don’t want to be a drain on myself, my family, and society.”
As a result, both men ditched sugar and overhauled their diet – something they thought would never happen.
“Our diet is a lot different to when we were overweight,” says Dave. “We don’t over-indulge and try to not eat any saturated fats.”
But he and Si are keen to stress they do not believe in simply denying yourself fatty foods.
“Whatever changes you make, they need to be sustainable,” says Dave. “If you tell yourself, ‘I’ll never eat that again’, then you will – and you’ll get back in the habit.
“Eat what you want, but eat it in moderation.” Si adds: “We’re men of a certain age, so we wouldn’t by any stretch of the imagination say to a 22-year-old you shouldn’t be eating that.
“We’re 40-plus, so we’re appealing to the dads and saying, ‘You can turn this around and look after yourself. It’s dead easy’.”
The pair have been TV favourites since their Hairy Bikers’ Cookbook hit the screen in 2006.
They first met 11 years earlier on the set of Robson Green drama The Gambling Man, when both worked in film production.
But despite their healthy switch, the Bikers have no plans to hang up their helmets. Si says: “After Easter we’re off to America along Route 66.
“And we’ve another book out at the end of the year. We’re doing pretty well healthwise – although I’ve just confessed to Dave I’ve a bit of Christmas belly to lose.”
Dave adds: “Our goal for the future is just to stay alive long enough.
“That will be good – just stay alive and healthy. We aren’t running out of steam.
“We just want to embrace life and enjoy it.”
1 CUT DOWN ON SATURATED FAT
“Most of us have it drummed into us this means cutting down on dairy products and red meat,” explains Dave. “But it’s important to cut down on cakes and biscuits too. “Crème brûlée is killer,” Si adds. “We both had high cholesterol so we now eat lots more vegetables. Tr to have
one meal a week that is plant-based.”
2 BE SMART ON SPREADS
The pair say a simple switch can make a world of difference.
Swap butter – which is packed with saturated fat – for spreads and oils such as olive, rapeseed or sunflower. The unsaturated fats in these improve blood cholesterol.
Dave adds: “I used to eat a pack of butter a day! Now I use Benecol instead.”
3 EAT MORE FISH
“Mid-week we try to eat fish,” Si says. Oily fish such as salmon, tuna, sardines, mackerel and trout are full of omegafatty acids – good fats, unlike the bad saturated fat you find in most meats. These fish should be a staple of everyone’s heart-healthy diet.
4 WATCH THE BOOZE
Too much alcohol causes weight gain, linked to high cholesterol. “We’ll never not have a pint and a pie. But instead of having six and seven, we have two or three,” Dave says. Si adds: “Most of my fluctuating weight is through alcohol. I’m trying to only drink at the weekend now.”
5 AVOID PACKAGED FOODS
The pair say: “Packaged foods are worst for the heart. It’s dead easy to cook from scratch and still have time to spare if you’re
in a rush. People lead such busy lives, and there’s a good chance both are at work. When we’re hungry we want a quick fix, but plan ahead and you can make that meal without resorting to the microwave. A stir-fry is best if you haven’t much time.