Doctors' Notes: Cholesterol

What's Up Docs?

BBC

Health & Fitness, Nature, Science

4.4 • 659 Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2026

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Chris and Xand take a closer look at cholesterol - what it is, why it worries so many people, and how diet and medicine fit into the picture. They’re joined again by Professor Nita Forouhi, Professor of Population Health and Nutrition at the University of Cambridge, to discuss why foods like seed oils become controversial, when cholesterol-lowering drugs such as statins make sense, and how her thinking on cholesterol has evolved over her career.

Presenters: Drs Chris and Xand van Tulleken Guest: Professor Nita Forouhi Producer: Faye Lyons-White Executive Producer: Rami Tzabar Editor: Jo Rowntree Researcher: Grace Revill Tech Lead: Reuben Huxtable Social Media: Leon Gower Digital Lead: Richard Berry Composer: Phoebe McFarlane Sound Design: Olga Reed

At the BBC:

Assistant Commissioner: Greg Smith Commissioning Editor: Rhian Roberts

A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
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0:13.5	But who are the family behind one of the world's tech giants?
0:17.2	They often say, look, we built the nation.
0:19.2	And without us, South Korea as it exists today,
0:22.6	would simply not be here. Inheritance, Samsung explores the real-life dramas of the Lee family
0:28.3	and their company. They are the equivalent of royalty. Listen first on BBC Sounds.
0:35.1	Hello, welcome to Doctor's Notes. I'm Chris Van Tiliken. I'm here as ever with my twin
0:39.4	brother, Zan, say who you are. That's me, Dr. Zan Van Tulliken. We've just finished recording our
0:43.7	main episode of What's Up Docs with Professor Nita Faruhi, all about cholesterol.
0:49.5	We talked about the different types of cholesterol, the sort of so-called good, the bad, the LDL and the HDL. And we talked about the different types of cholesterol, the sort of so-called good, the bad, the
0:55.4	LDL and the HDL, and we talked about all the different things you can do to lower cholesterol
1:00.8	and about its wider impact on your health. Zandi, what are we about to talk about in
1:05.4	doctor's notes? As part of the cholesterol conversation, dietary fat has been increasingly confusing and complicated,
1:13.0	particularly on social media, but in the mainstream press as well.
1:16.1	Seed oils and trans fats are a big part of that conversation.
1:19.9	We are going to be talking about whether or not they're dangerous and talking generally
1:23.8	about dietary fat, what's healthy, what you might reach for in the supermarket.
1:28.3	Great. Should we open the notes? Let's open the notes.
1:35.4	Nita, thank you so much for staying with us for Doctor's Notes.
1:42.9	Hi, thank you very much. Great to be here.
	...

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