The Ultimate Cholesterol Lowering Plan©

Our consumer downloadable information sheets have been refreshed and updated to provide the consumers with highly visual and practical advice on how to adopt the UCLP© in a step-by-step manner. Each individual downloadable focuses on one specific aspect of the UCLP© and explores an array of practical solutions.  

The donwloads can be used by health professional during clinic visits and/or directly downloaded by the patient.

• UCLP© At a Glance.  This provides an overview of all three steps of the UCLP©. This has been fully updated to provide more practical advice and swaps. Click to download
• Step 1: Let's Get Motivated.  A quick exercise to help patients explore their key motivators and how to overcome barriers.  On the reverse, consumers are encouraged to record and monitor their current blood lipids, blood press and weight. Click to download
• Food & Drink Diaries.  Essential for all dietary interventions. The reverse provides clear and helpful tips to ensure they are completed efficiently to easely pin-point key areas for improvement and identifying triggers. Click to download
• UCLP© Check List.  If time is of the essence, our quick 5-minute check list is an easy exercise to help quickly identify key areas for improvements. Click to download
• Step 2: Heart Healthy Foundation Diet.  Bringing Step 2 of the UCLP© to life.  The heart healthy foundations focuses on heart healthy fats, oil-rich fish, achieving 5-a-day, consuming more wholegrains and healthy hydration whilst highlighting HFSS foods to avoid. The information sheet emphasises that only one or two dietary changes should be attempted every few weeks - thus helping the consumer focus and set realistic targets. Click to download
• Heart Healthy Fats.  Lowering saturated fat and improving unsaturated fat intakes is the most important part of Step 2 of the UCLP©.  This information sheet provides the consumer with a plethora of practical tips and swaps. Click to download
• Achieving 5-a-day.  The importance of achieving at least five portions of fruit and vegetables is highlighted in this download.  The highly visual formats demonstrates clearly what a portion of different fruit and vegetables looks like as household measures.  Click to download
• Setting Targets and Keeping Motivated. This download allows the patient to write down and commit to which dietary change they will undertake and how they will do this.  Additionally, the consumer is encouraged to review their progress every few weeks, and prompted to consider taking on board more dietary improvements. Click to download

The UCLP© consumer booklet has been fully revised to provide consumers with a highly visual and practical step-by-step guide to the UCLP©.  The leaflet discusses the 3 key stages of the UCLP©: Getting into the right mindset, the heart healthy foundation diet and the four UCLP© foods.  The consumer is provided with exercises and practical options to adopt at each step with the emphasis on taking on board just one or two new dietary changes at a time, committing to the changes by completing  their own UCLP© plan, encouraging 2-3 weekly reviews of progress and setting targets to make more dietary changes.  The key message is one step at time and to take each component within each step at their own pace.

You can download the new pdf version by clicking here.  

HARD COPIES of the updated booklet are avaialble to order form here .  However, due to the current COVID-19 situation, we will  only be able to dispatch once the government removes lock-down restrictions.

The findings from the recent extensive review of the scientific evidence relating to all aspects of the UCLP© recommendations is summarised in our new fully referenced 8-page fact sheet.  The fact sheet discusses the current heart health status of both the UK and Ireland and current government initiatives before presenting the scientific evidence for all components of the UCLP©, the practical implications including guidance on how to apply behavioural strategies during patient consultations to optimise its uptake.  The evidence strongly supports the UCLP©'s unique flexible approach which allows the plan to be tailored to meet any individual's personal preferences and capabilities whilst still having the potential to lower serum cholesterol levels as well as providing overall heart health benefits.

An 1-hour free webinar starting with the latest statistics for heart disease in the UK & Ireland and the key risk factors that need to be modified. Insights into the UCLP© then follow; the scientific evidence underpinning it and its practical implications for consumers.  As the webinar takes you through the step-by-step application of the UCLP©, it highlights its ability to be tailored to any individual's personal preferences and capabilities whilst still providing potentially significant cholesterol-lowering and cardioprotective benefits.

Written by HEART UK – The Cholesterol Charity in collaboration with seven leading health professionals. The UCLP© is the practical, realistic and evidence based cholesterol-lowering programme.

The UCLP© brings the core principles of the Portfolio diet and its significant benefits, to a wider range of patients through its flexible and tailored approach.  Intergral to the success of the UCLP© is the use of behavioural strategies throughout its application. The UCLP© is made up of multiple dietary components, which individually have been proven to improve heart health outcomes and/or significantly lower cholesterol. The more of the components adopted by an individual, the greater the potential benefits. This, in combination with behavioural strategies allows the patient the autonomy to choose which and how many of the food components to select at any one time, thus accommodating different motivation levels and capabilities. 

The 3 steps of the UCLP©

Step 1: Behavioural strategies to help motivate the patient to instigate dietary improvements and maintain positive dietary changes for the long-term.

Step 2: Heart healthy foundations focuses on: replacing saturated fat with unsaturated fat, inclusion of oil rich fish, improving wholegrain intakes, achieving at least 5-a-day and reducing foods and drinks high in fat, salt and sugars.

Step 3: The four UCLP© foods are introduced once the heart healthy foundation diet is optimised. The patient can choose to add just one or all of the foods to their diet:

• Soya foods @ 15-25g soya protein per day
• Foods fortified with stanols @ 1.5-3g per day.
• Beta-glucans from oats or barley @ 3g per day.
• Nuts @ 28-30g (a handful) per day

The patient is encouraged to take things at their own pace and monitor their progress on a regular basis.  The behavioural strategies include setting targets and reviewing progress, exploring motivators and how to overcome barriers, preparing for any potential difficult times and celebrating success.

The UCLP© can be used alongside statins.

Download theUCLP© factsheet (published Oct 2019) to read the latest scientific evidence and exlpore our consumer resources: the UCLP© consumer 12-page booklet & our eight updated 2020 consumer information sheets.