How to Lower Cholesterol Naturally with Food | Dr. Michael Greger
The Exam Room by the Physicians Committee
Physicians Committee
4.9 • 3.3K Ratings
🗓️ 6 October 2025
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Can you really lower cholesterol with food? Dr. Michael Greger joins Chuck Carroll on The Exam Room Podcast to reveal the simple, science-backed foods and spices that can drive LDL cholesterol down—without drugs or side effects. Discover how everyday choices can protect your heart and add years to your life.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- Why the Standard American Diet is now the #1 cause of death in the U.S.
- The truth about statins: small benefit, real risks.
- How plant-based eating can reverse heart disease.
- Foods that raise cholesterol: meat, dairy, eggs, coconut & palm oils.
- The top foods and spices proven to lower LDL include black soybeans, apples, and garlic powder.
- Why olive oil raises cholesterol on a vegan diet.
- Green tea and mushrooms: health boosters, but not major LDL-reducers.
- Practical tips: even one small daily change makes a big difference.
👉 Share your questions for Dr. Greger in the comments!
Dr. Greger's Book: Lower LDL Cholesterol Naturally with Food
Amazon Kindle: https://amzn.to/4h14QcA
Dr. Greger's Cholesterol seminar is on Oct. 10 at 2pm ET.
Register by Oct. 8: https://bit.ly/DrGregerCholesterolEvent
If you feel like you’ve raised your health IQ, please leave a 5-star rating and nice review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today on the exam room. |
| 0:04.7 | Do we have a head-to-head comparison in terms of how effective a dietary approach is compared to statins for lowering cholesterol? |
| 0:12.4 | The closest we have in terms of kind of estimating the absolute risk reduction would be on the Aselston case theories, took over 100 patients with this really kind of intractable heart disease. |
| 0:25.6 | Doctors basically dumped their worst patients onto poor Esselstyn |
| 0:29.6 | who put them on a healthy diet. |
| 0:31.6 | But you could compare those that actually stuck with the diet |
| 0:34.6 | versus those who are like, |
| 0:36.6 | ah, forget diet. |
| 0:38.3 | So basically there's like 10 times greater benefit |
| 0:42.3 | for that kind of dietary change, which wasn't a lifestyle change, |
| 0:44.3 | it was really just changing to a whole food plant-based diet, |
| 0:48.3 | appeared to be 10 times more effective than what you'd see with drugs, |
| 0:52.3 | and of course you just get the beneficial side |
| 0:55.0 | effect. |
| 0:59.7 | Welcome to the exam room podcast, brought to you by the Physicians Committee. Hi, I'm Chuck Carroll, |
| 1:05.2 | raising health IQs coast to coast and around the world. Hi to the exam room. He's listening |
| 1:10.3 | in Lincoln, Nebraska, Reno, Nevada, and Valencia, Spain. |
| 1:16.0 | Wherever you are, we appreciate you, helping to make the world a healthier place. |
| 1:20.3 | This is episode 79 of season 8, number 678 overall. |
| 1:25.3 | And today we are diving into one of the most important numbers for your health, |
| 1:30.8 | your cholesterol. And joining us is none other than Dr. Michael Greger. You know him, the best |
| 1:36.4 | selling author and founder of NutritionFacts.org. Well, he is here to share groundbreaking insights |
... |
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