This post is about a food hamper for someone who has been told to bring their cholesterol down. It uses the NHS food lists to decide what goes into the box, what to leave out, and where dates fit.
The NHS page on high cholesterol says you can lower your cholesterol by eating healthily and getting more exercise, and that some people also need to take medicine. Eating fatty food and being overweight are among the causes it lists. High cholesterol does not usually cause symptoms, and the NHS says a blood test is the only way to find out if you have it.
What the NHS says to eat more and less of
On its page about how to lower your cholesterol, the NHS says to cut down on fatty food, especially food that contains saturated fat, and that you can still have foods with unsaturated fat. Its "try to eat more" list is:
- 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.
Filling the box from the eat-more list
This hamper leaves out fresh fish and fresh vegetables and sticks to bottles, bags and boxes. That still covers four of the five lines.
A bottle of olive oil or rapeseed oil fits the second line. The NHS fat page says too much saturated fat can raise "bad" LDL cholesterol, and that there is good evidence that replacing saturated fats with some unsaturated fats can help to lower your cholesterol level. A bottle of olive or rapeseed oil gives the person the unsaturated side of that swap.
A bag of brown rice or wholewheat pasta covers the third line. Nuts and seeds cover the fourth. The fat page names almonds, brazils and peanuts as sources of monounsaturated fat, and lists walnuts among the omega-3 sources suitable for vegetarians. The NHS fibre page says to choose unsalted nuts without added sugars, so pick plain ones over salted or honey-roasted packs.
Dates cover the last line, as a fruit.
What to leave out
Cakes and biscuits are on the eat-less list, and so are butter, ghee, cream and cheese. If a ready-made hamper is mostly those, it leans toward the eat-less list. The NHS also says to check labels on food to see what type of fat it has in it, which matters for anything packaged: food that contains coconut oil or palm oil is on the eat-less list too. The fat page lists palm oil, coconut oil and coconut cream among foods high in saturated fat.
Dates in the hamper
USDA FoodData Central lists Deglet Noor dates at 0 mg of cholesterol, 0.39 g of fat and 0.032 g of saturated fat per 100 g, with 8.0 g of fibre. Medjool dates have 0.15 g of fat and 6.7 g of fibre per 100 g. These USDA figures are for those two varieties, not for Mazafati.
Dates are also sweet. Per 100 g, Medjool has 277 kcal and 66.5 g of sugars, and Deglet Noor 282 kcal and 63.4 g. 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, not as a snack between meals, to reduce the impact on teeth. You could add a note with that NHS line.
If you put Mazafati in, it is a very soft, high-moisture date that needs refrigeration. Tell the person to put it in the fridge when the hamper arrives.
What the date studies found
A food with no cholesterol in it is not the same as a food that lowers the cholesterol in your blood. Here is what three studies on that second question found.
In a pilot study (Rock et al., 2009), ten healthy people ate 100 g a day of Medjool or Hallawi dates for four weeks. Their total cholesterol and the cholesterol in the VLDL, LDL and HDL fractions did not change significantly. Triglycerides fell by 8% after Medjool and 15% after Hallawi.
A randomised trial (Butler et al., 2022) gave 79 adults with type 2 diabetes either 60 g of dates or 60 g of raisins daily for 12 weeks. Sixty-one completed the study, and lipids showed no difference between or within the groups.
A meta-analysis limited to people with type 2 diabetes (Mirghani and Alhowiti, 2025) pooled fourteen cohorts from four studies, 298 participants in all. Dates reduced total cholesterol in the pooled result, with heterogeneity of 90%. LDL, triglycerides and HDL showed no significant change, and the authors say larger studies are needed.
So the evidence is thin. The study in healthy people found no change in cholesterol, the diabetes trial found no change in lipids, and the meta-analysis, in type 2 diabetes only, found lower total cholesterol but no significant change in LDL. None of the three found that dates made lipids worse. In the hamper, dates count as a fruit.
Beyond the hamper
Food is one part of the NHS advice. It also says to aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activity a week, to stop smoking, and to avoid drinking more than 14 units of alcohol a week on a regular basis. Whether someone also needs medicine is a question for their doctor.
If you're putting together a hamper, our dates fruit range and kurma prices are worth checking first, and our about page covers WhatsApp customer service and quotes.
This article is general information, not medical advice. Anyone with high cholesterol, or taking medicine for it, should talk to their doctor before changing their 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; How to get more fibre into your diet; 5 A Day: what counts?
- USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy (2019): Dates, deglet noor, FDC ID 171726; Dates, medjool, FDC ID 168191.