Public Ignorance About High Cholesterol Levels And Heart Disease Link

Main Category: Heart Disease
Also Included In: Cholesterol
Article Date: 16 Jan 2004 - 0:00 PST

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A UK charity (Cholesterol UK) carried out a survey of 1,000 adults and found that only 5% were aware of the dangers of having high cholesterol (in your body). This is despite the fact that 45% of the UK population have unhealthy cholesterol levels.

Even though 60% said they only ate low fat foods twice a month, 90% (of the 1000 people surveyed) thought they had a good diet.

Heart disease kills about 125,000 people a year in the UK. The charity warns that people are not adhering to healthy eating plans (this would help protect from heart disease).

Apart from causing heart disease, high cholesterol is very dangerous for diabetics and people who are obese (another growing problem in the UK is obesity). High cholesterol also causes strokes.

32% of the interviewees eat chips or crisps once or twice a week. The charity said that if they were to extrapolate the data from their survey, nationally 12 million people in the UK do the same, 7.5 million eat ready meals twice a week while one million eat ready meals every day.

15% of the people said they ate take-aways (take outs) twice a week (which should mean about six million people in the UK). Two per cent said that they never ate fruit or vegetable.

Dr John Reckless, of Cholesterol UK, said, 'This survey reveals the public is deeply confused about the true causes of heart disease and the link between diet and health. Campaigns about cigarette smoking and being overweight seem to be hitting home, which is great. But the major risk factor - raised cholesterol - is still not recognised by many people.'

'Most people can lower their cholesterol level through a few simply changes to their eating, exercise and lifestyle habits. It's clear that many people think they are eating a healthy heart diet when they are not.'

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