'I'M A SPORTS NUTRITIONIST AND I HAVE HIGH CHOLESTEROL'

WF columnist and a leading registered sports nutritionist, Rob Hobson explains why being fit doesn't always mean you're healthy on the inside. Here's what you can do to keep unhealthy cholesterol levels down

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I have built my career around food, wellness and helping people make better choices, so imagine my shock when I discovered that my own cholesterol was very high. I exercise daily, eat plenty of vegetables and wholegrains, don’t smoke and rarely overdo it on alcohol. By all appearances, I was the picture of health.

But cholesterol is a silent risk factor. You can feel great, look fit and still have raised levels ticking away in the background. Mine were high enough to make me stop in my tracks. That was the moment I realised that being fit doesn’t automatically mean being fine.

WHAT THE NUMBERS MEAN

Heart disease is one of the UK's biggest killers, and heart attacks alone lead to around 100,000 hospital admissions a year, which is roughly one every five minutes. That’s exactly why I now say to everyone to know your numbers. I used a simple Medichecks home test kit: easy to use and it was an eyeopener.

My results showed raised total cholesterol at 6.9 mmol/L and LDL cholesterol at 4.3 mmol/L, both above the healthy range. My HDL (‘good’ cholesterol) was in a healthy place, and my blood pressure is excellent. Protective factors in my favour but the risk is still there.

The NHS generally recommends:

• Total cholesterol: under 5 mmol/L

• Non-HDL cholesterol: under 4 mmol/L

• HDL: above 1.0 mmol/L (men) / 1.2 mmol/L (women)