This post is about having food already washed, cut and sitting at eye level when you open the fridge at 6pm hungry. If you are trying to bring your cholesterol down, the NHS says you can lower cholesterol by eating healthily and getting more exercise, and among the causes it lists are eating fatty food and being overweight. It also says high cholesterol does not usually cause symptoms, so a blood test is the only way to know where you stand.
It takes the NHS food lists and turns them into one hour of preparation a week, then looks at where dates fit and what the studies on dates actually found.
The shopping list, straight from the NHS
The NHS page on how to lower your cholesterol says to cut down on fatty food, especially food high in saturated fat, and to keep eating foods with unsaturated fat. Its "try to eat more" list is short:
- oily fish, like mackerel and salmon
- olive oil, rapeseed oil and spreads made from these oils
- brown rice, wholegrain bread and wholewheat pasta
- nuts and seeds
- fruits and vegetables
The "try to eat less" list is meat pies, sausages and fatty meat; butter, lard and ghee; cream and cheese; cakes and biscuits; and food that contains coconut oil or palm oil. That second list is worth reading twice, because it covers cooking fats such as ghee, coconut oil and palm oil as well as snacks.
One hour on Sunday
Pick one hour, for example Sunday evening. Cook a pot of brown rice, which is on the eat-more list, and portion it into boxes. Bake or grill some mackerel or salmon in olive oil or rapeseed oil instead of frying it in ghee or palm oil. Wash and cut whatever fruit and vegetables you have. Portion nuts and seeds into small containers rather than leaving the whole bag open on the counter.
None of this needs a recipe. It needs somewhere visible to put the food once it's ready. Put the bowl of fruit and the box of nuts on the counter, and keep the biscuits out of sight in a high cupboard. The NHS page on fat gives the reason behind the swap: too much saturated fat can raise "bad" LDL cholesterol, and there is good evidence that replacing saturated fats with some unsaturated fats can help to lower your cholesterol level. Its examples of foods high in saturated fat include biscuits, cakes and pastries, and some savoury snacks.
Where dates go in the prep box
Dates are fruit, so they belong with the eat-more foods. According to USDA FoodData Central, Deglet Noor dates contain 0 mg of cholesterol, 0.39 g of fat and 0.032 g of saturated fat per 100 g, plus 8.0 g of fibre. Medjool dates have 0.15 g of fat and 6.7 g of fibre per 100 g.
They are also dense in energy and sugar: 277 kcal and 66.5 g of sugars per 100 g for Medjool, 282 kcal and 63.4 g for Deglet Noor. Being overweight is one of the NHS causes of high cholesterol, so portion size matters. The NHS counts a 30 g portion of dried fruit, such as dates, as one of your 5 A Day, and says it should be eaten at mealtimes rather than as a snack between meals, to reduce the impact on teeth. So weigh out 30 g portions on Sunday and put one in each lunch box, next to the rice and fish, instead of keeping them in a desk drawer for snacking.
What the date studies found
Having no cholesterol in a food is different from lowering cholesterol in your blood. Three studies have looked at the second question.
Ten healthy adults in a pilot study (Rock et al., 2009) ate 100 g of Medjool or Hallawi dates a day for four weeks. Total cholesterol, and the cholesterol in the VLDL, LDL and HDL fractions, did not change significantly. Triglycerides went down by 8% with Medjool and 15% with Hallawi.
In a randomised trial (Butler et al., 2022), 79 adults with type 2 diabetes were given either 60 g of dates or 60 g of raisins daily for 12 weeks, and 61 completed it. Lipids showed no difference between or within the groups.
A meta-analysis limited to people with type 2 diabetes (Mirghani and Alhowiti, 2025) combined fourteen cohorts from four randomised studies with 298 participants. Dates reduced total cholesterol in the pooled analysis, although heterogeneity was 90%, and there were no significant changes in LDL, triglycerides or HDL. The authors say larger studies are needed.
So dates are not a cholesterol-lowering food on this evidence, and the study in healthy people found no change. They did not make lipids worse in any of the three. Their place in the prep box is as a fruit portion that takes the spot a biscuit used to have.
The rest of the week
Start small, with one prepped lunch box and one fruit-and-nuts box a week. The NHS also advises at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous activity a week, stopping smoking, and not regularly drinking more than 14 units of alcohol a week. Some people also need medicine, which is for your doctor to decide.
If you're stocking the prep box, see our dates fruit range and current kurma prices for portioning ideas. Plain dates are what the figures above describe, so check the label on any stuffed or coated ones.
This article is general information, not medical advice. If you have high cholesterol or take medicine for it, talk to your doctor before you change your diet.
References
- Rock W, et al. Effects of date (Phoenix dactylifera L., Medjool or Hallawi variety) consumption by healthy subjects on serum glucose and lipid levels and on serum oxidative status: a pilot study. J Agric Food Chem. 2009;57(17):8010-7. PMID 19681613
- Butler AE, et al. Effect of Date Fruit Consumption on the Glycemic Control of Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Nutrients. 2022;14(17):3491. PMID 36079749
- Mirghani HO, Alhowiti A. Dates fruit effects on dyslipidemia among patients with Type-2 diabetes mellitus: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials. Pak J Med Sci. 2025;41(1):331-337. PMID 39867809
- NHS. High cholesterol; How to lower your cholesterol; Fat: the facts; 5 A Day: what counts?
- USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy (2019): Dates, deglet noor, FDC ID 171726; Dates, medjool, FDC ID 168191.