How should we think about cholesterol?
What's Up Docs?
BBC
4.4 • 659 Ratings
🗓️ 7 April 2026
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to What’s Up Docs?, the podcast where doctors and identical twins Chris and Xand van Tulleken untangle the confusion around every aspect of our health and wellbeing.
In this episode, they take on one of nutrition’s most misunderstood topics: fat. What is it, and why does our body need it? At what point does something normal and essential become something we worry about? What do cholesterol blood tests actually measure, and how well do they predict disease?
Chris and Xand also explore the relationship between diet and cholesterol, asking how much influence what we eat really has, whether certain fats deserve their bad reputation, and what gets lost when we focus on single nutrients instead of overall dietary patterns.
They’re joined by Nita Forouhi, Professor of Population Health and Nutrition at the University of Cambridge, to help separate evidence from hype and offer a clearer way to think about fat, cholesterol, and healthy eating.
If you want to get in touch, you can email us at whatsupdocs@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp us on 08000 665 123.
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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| 0:36.2 | Hello and welcome to Radio 4's Health and Well- podcast. What's up, Docs, with me, |
| 0:41.4 | Dr. Zandt. And me, Dr. Chris. So today, Chris, we're looking at the subject of cholesterol, |
| 0:48.1 | trying to unclog it, unblock it. And we want to increase our understanding of it. |
| 2:01.9 | It's a word that we think of. It is synonymous with bad health risk and a bad thing. It's a bit like saying radiation. It's one of those words that's sort of not a good word. Yes. I think we're going to get to a very different understanding of it. Should we be worried about it? Should we have it measured? How bad for us is it? And are the different types of it? These are the questions we'll be answering. Chris, before we get into our main topic of cholesterol today, I just want to check in with you. How are you doing? What have you got for me? A nice thing that's happened recently is that we have realized, you know, when you get takeaway food and the rider comes to the house and you have to give them a code so you get your food. Yes. You don't have to. You live in the country. Anyway. I'm aware of the idea of takeaway delivery. Urban sophisticates will know that this is how it works. And do you know what our code is? No. Six, seven. Oh, that's good. just love. And they come out and do the whole six, seven. And sometimes the rider's like, six seven, and they have a little six seven. The ride you get it as well. There will be listeners with no idea what's going on. Just explain the six, seven phenomenon. There have been long form pieces on it, trying to chase back where exactly it comes from. It may come from the numbers on a basketball t-shirt it may be in a song no one's entirely sure if six-seven |
| 2:07.3 | arises in class or in any situation if someone ends up saying it right it's the answer to the |
| 2:12.5 | question on a board everyone just goes six seven and wobbles their arms like this you're doing a sort of as if you're weighing, you've got a couple of bags of sugar in each hand. So this has been going on for a long time, and the older kids, it's a bit like skibbiddy. They find it painfully uncool. And so now we've got the five-year-olds and four-year-olds are into it. And Sasha's taught Indigo how to do it. The Prime Minister got in trouble for mentioning 6-7 in a school. Like, it does seem to be a thing that annoys teachers. |
| 2:37.9 | It was a lovely. it and Sasha's taught Indigo how to do it. The prime minister got in trouble for mentioning |
| 2:34.4 | six seven in a school. Like it does seem to be a thing that annoys teachers. It was a lovely clip |
| 2:38.6 | online we're in it at fast food restaurant. You know, the orders come up. And so a crowd gathered |
| 2:43.5 | because the numbers were going like 60. Order number 65, 66. And then order number 67 |
| 2:49.6 | finged off. It was like a goal being scored at the World Cup |
| 2:52.7 | the whole restaurant so lots and lots of restaurants have taken the number six seven off all of |
| 2:56.9 | which seems to me to be fueling the crisis like don't ban it just the minute teachers start going |
| 3:02.4 | six seven it feels like the thing of the forbidden fruit just doing the thing you've been told not to do, that's what drives it. |
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