This post takes one meal, breakfast, and builds it from the foods the NHS links with lower cholesterol. Dates come into it too, with what the studies on dates and cholesterol actually found.
First, the background from the NHS page on high cholesterol. It says you can lower your cholesterol by eating healthily and getting more exercise, and that some people also need to take medicine. Eating fatty food and being overweight are among the causes it lists. High cholesterol does not usually cause symptoms, so a blood test is the only way to find out if you have it.
The NHS food lists
The NHS page on how to lower your cholesterol says to cut down on fatty food, especially food with saturated fat, and to check labels for the type of fat. You can still have foods with unsaturated fat. Its "try to eat more" list:
- oily fish, like mackerel and salmon
- olive oil, rapeseed oil and spreads made from these oils
- brown rice, wholegrain bread and wholewheat pasta
- nuts and seeds
- fruits and vegetables
And to eat less of meat pies, sausages and fatty meat; butter, lard and ghee; cream and cheese; cakes and biscuits; and food that contains coconut oil or palm oil.
A breakfast built from the list
Start with the grain. The NHS page on getting more fibre suggests porridge, as oats are a good source of fibre, or wholemeal and granary breads. Wholegrain bread is already on the eat-more list. The same page gives one example breakfast: two slices of wholemeal toast with peanut butter, followed by a medium-size orange, should give you around 8.3 g of fibre. It says government guidelines put adult fibre intake at 30 g a day, while most adults eat about 20 g.
Then the spread. Spreads made from olive or rapeseed oil are on the eat-more side. Butter and ghee are on the eat-less side. The NHS fat page says too much saturated fat can raise "bad" LDL cholesterol, and that there is good evidence that replacing saturated fats with some unsaturated fats can help to lower your cholesterol level.
A spoon of nuts or seeds on top covers another line of the list. The fat page names almonds, brazils and peanuts as sources of monounsaturated fat. The fibre page asks you to choose unsalted nuts without added sugars. Keep the spoon small: the fat page says a gram of any fat gives 9 kcal, against 4 kcal for carbohydrate and protein.
Dates at breakfast
Dates can go into breakfast as the fruit. The NHS counts a 30 g portion of dried fruit, such as dates, as one of your 5 A Day, and says it should be eaten at mealtimes, not as a snack between meals, to reduce the impact on teeth. Its page on sugar suggests choosing unsweetened cereal and adding fruit for sweetness, and names dried fruit as one option. Chopped dates on plain porridge do that job in place of sugar or honey.
The sugar page also explains the difference. Sugars in honey and syrups count as free sugars, and adults should have no more than 30 g of free sugars a day. Sugar found naturally in fruit does not count as free sugars, unless the fruit is puréed or juiced. So whole chopped dates stay on the fruit side, while dates blended into a purée count as free sugars.
USDA FoodData Central lists Deglet Noor dates at 0 mg of cholesterol, 0.39 g of fat and 0.032 g of saturated fat per 100 g, with 8.0 g of fibre. Medjool dates have 0.15 g of fat and 6.7 g of fibre per 100 g. The NHS fibre page calls a food high-fibre at 6 g or more per 100 g, so both clear that line. They are also sweet: per 100 g, Medjool has 277 kcal and 66.5 g of sugars, and Deglet Noor 282 kcal and 63.4 g. Weigh the 30 g once so you know what a portion looks like.
What the date studies found
A food with no cholesterol in it is not the same as a food that lowers the cholesterol in your blood. Here is what three studies on that second question found.
In a pilot study (Rock et al., 2009), ten healthy people ate 100 g a day of Medjool or Hallawi dates for four weeks. Their total cholesterol and the cholesterol in the VLDL, LDL and HDL fractions did not change significantly. Triglycerides fell by 8% after Medjool and 15% after Hallawi.
A randomised trial (Butler et al., 2022) gave 79 adults with type 2 diabetes either 60 g of dates or 60 g of raisins daily for 12 weeks, split into a midmorning and a midafternoon snack. Sixty-one completed the study. Lipids showed no difference between or within the groups.
A meta-analysis limited to people with type 2 diabetes (Mirghani and Alhowiti, 2025) pooled fourteen cohorts from four studies, 298 participants in all. Dates reduced total cholesterol in the pooled result, with heterogeneity of 90%. LDL, triglycerides and HDL showed no significant change, and the authors say larger studies are needed.
So the evidence is thin. The study in healthy people found no change in cholesterol, the diabetes trial found no change in lipids, and the meta-analysis, in type 2 diabetes only, found lower total cholesterol but no significant change in LDL. None of the three found that dates made lipids worse. At breakfast they count as a fruit portion, next to the swaps from the NHS lists.
Beyond breakfast
Food is one part of the NHS advice. It also says to aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activity a week, to stop smoking, and to avoid drinking more than 14 units of alcohol a week on a regular basis. Whether you also need medicine is a question for your doctor.
For the dates themselves, see our dates fruit range and check kurma prices, or contact us with a question. The figures above are for plain dates, so check the label on stuffed or coated ones.
This article is general information, not medical advice. If you have high cholesterol or take medicine for it, talk to your doctor before changing your diet.
References
- Rock W, et al. Effects of date (Phoenix dactylifera L., Medjool or Hallawi variety) consumption by healthy subjects on serum glucose and lipid levels and on serum oxidative status: a pilot study. J Agric Food Chem. 2009;57(17):8010-7. PMID 19681613
- Butler AE, et al. Effect of Date Fruit Consumption on the Glycemic Control of Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Nutrients. 2022;14(17):3491. PMID 36079749
- Mirghani HO, Alhowiti A. Dates fruit effects on dyslipidemia among patients with Type-2 diabetes mellitus: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials. Pak J Med Sci. 2025;41(1):331-337. PMID 39867809
- NHS. High cholesterol; How to lower your cholesterol; Fat: the facts; How to get more fibre into your diet; 5 A Day: what counts?; Sugar: the facts
- USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy (2019): Dates, deglet noor, FDC ID 171726; Dates, medjool, FDC ID 168191.