Simple Christmas dinner swap can help lower cholesterol – helping prevent stroke
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Crispy roast potatoes are a staple of a Christmas dinner, and everyone has their own favourite way of making them. Do you lather your roasties in goose fat? Or coconut oil for something different? It turns out making a simple swap when it comes to making roast potatoes at Christmas could have heaps of health benefits - including helping prevent stroke.
Although Christmas is all about enjoying delicious food, Heart UK says you can still still make healthier choices, making it less likely you'll gain lots of weight or increase your risk of health conditions. For example, instead of butter, Heart UK recommends switching to rapeseed oil or olive oil - and be careful how much you use. They say: "Switch to rapeseed oil or olive oil for roasting and watch how much is used. Unsaturated fats such as rapeseed and olive oil are excellent for roasting your turkey and potatoes.
"Not only do they give beautifully crisp results, they're also heart healthy, unlike the saturated fat in butter. As all fats are high in calories, still watch how much you use.". Olive oil and rapeseed oil, which are monounsaturated fats, has many health benefits, including helping maintaining levels of 'good' HDL cholesterol while reducing levels of 'bad' cholesterol in your blood.
Dr Haris Mumtaz, UK medical doctor co-founder of @herb_docs, says he "lathers everything in olive oil" for a number of reasons. Taking to TikTok, he said it's "packed with phenolic compounds, which are potent antioxidant and could protect your cells against free radicals that cause damage".
