The short answer
The best bread for high cholesterol is 100% wholemeal (whole wheat) or wholegrain rye: almost every bread is low in saturated fat (22 of the 24 we compared had 2g or less per 80g, about two slices), so fibre is what sets them apart. Wholemeal and rye loaves had 5 to 7g of fibre per 80g against 2 to 4g for white bread, while enriched sweet breads and brioche had the most saturated fat.
Quick picks from our table:
- Best overall: Schneider Brot Whole Grain Rye (UK): 0.1g saturated fat and 6.2g fibre per 80g, wholegrain rye with sourdough
- Best US: Dave's Killer Bread 21 Whole Grains and Seeds (7.1g fibre) and Nature's Own Whole Wheat (7g fibre): 0g saturated fat on the label
- Best UK: Hovis Tasty Wholemeal (5.4g fibre) and Warburtons Wholemeal (5.1g): 0.4g saturated fat
- Best bagel: New York Bakery Co. Wholemeal: 0.3g saturated fat and 6.9g fibre per bagel
- Limit: King's Hawaiian Sliced Hawaiian Sweet Bread (3.6g saturated fat, 14.5g sugar per 80g) and Brioche Pasquier rolls (2.8g per 2 rolls)
Label data only, not medical advice
This ranking compares what each pack's nutrition label says about saturated fat, fibre and sugar. It isn't a health rating of any brand, and no bread here is a cholesterol-lowering food on its own. Recipes change, so check the label on the pack you buy. If your doctor or dietitian has given you specific limits, follow those.
24 breads ranked by saturated fat
Loaves are compared on 80g, about two medium slices (one sandwich or two slices of toast). Slice weights vary from about 28g to 48g between brands, so a thin-sliced loaf will give you more slices for the same 80g. Bagels, wraps, tortillas and rolls use their own weight from the label. "Wholegrain" means wholemeal, whole wheat or wholegrain flour comes first in the ingredients; "Partly" means some is listed further down. Bands: Better 2g or less per serving, Occasional over 2g up to 4.5g, Treat over 4.5g. No bread reached the Treat band. Tap "Fibre per serving" to sort by fibre.
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Nutrition data from Open Food Facts, available under the Open Database License (ODbL). Product names link to each product's Open Food Facts page.
What the ranking shows
- Saturated fat barely separates everyday loaves. Sliced white, brown, wholemeal, seeded and sourdough all came in between 0 and 1g per 80g. If your bread is pushing up your saturated fat, it's almost always the butter, cheese or bacon on it.
- Fibre does. Dave's Killer Bread 21 Whole Grains (7.1g), Nature's Own Whole Wheat (7g) and Schneider Brot rye (6.2g) had three to four times the fibre of Warburtons Toastie White (1.8g) for the same 80g.
- "Best of both" and 50/50 loaves sit in between. Hovis Best of Both, made with equal parts white and wholemeal flour, had 4.5g of fibre per 80g. Kingsmill Soft White, which lists some wholemeal flour, had 3.8g.
- Seeded isn't the same as wholegrain. Warburtons Seeded Batch is white flour with 15% seeds: 4.8g of fibre and 1g of saturated fat per 80g. Seeds add unsaturated fat and some fibre, but a wholemeal loaf with seeds is better still.
- Enriched breads carry butter and eggs. Brioche Pasquier rolls (4g per 100g) and King's Hawaiian Sliced Sweet Bread (4.5g per 100g) had several times the saturated fat of ordinary bread, plus more sugar: 14.5g per 80g for the King's Hawaiian loaf.
- Wraps and tortillas are close to bread. Mission's UK Deli wrap had 0.7g per wrap and its US flour tortilla 1g, a little more per gram than sliced bread because of the added oil, and with less fibre than wholemeal.
- US labels round. US Nutrition Facts round saturated fat under 0.5g per serving down to 0g, so the US loaves showing 0g could have a trace. UK labels give per 100g figures to one decimal place.
Why fibre matters for cholesterol
Wholegrain foods are linked with a lower risk of heart disease, and fibre keeps you full for longer. Soluble fibre in particular binds bile acids in the gut, so the liver pulls more cholesterol from the blood to make new ones (see how fibre works like a cholesterol sponge). Wheat bread is mostly insoluble fibre; oats and barley are the best sources of soluble fibre, and rye has some too. Most adults eat well short of the 25 to 30g a day that is recommended, and swapping white bread for wholemeal is one of the easiest ways to add 3 to 4g a day.
How to choose a bread
- Check the first ingredient. Look for wholemeal flour, whole wheat flour or wholegrain rye first. "Wheat flour", "enriched flour" and "multigrain" on their own mean mostly white flour.
- Check the fibre. In the UK, 6g per 100g can be labelled "high fibre" and 3g "source of fibre". On a US label, look for at least 3g per slice.
- Avoid enriched doughs for everyday. Brioche, sweet rolls and milk breads add butter, eggs or milk and sugar. Keep them for occasional treats.
- Watch the salt. Two slices of bread can have about 1g of salt. UK traffic-light labels make it easy to compare.
- Choose the spread as carefully as the bread. A 10g pat of butter adds about 5g of saturated fat, more than any bread in our table. Try a plant-based spread, avocado, hummus or peanut butter instead.
Build a better breakfast
Wholemeal toast with peanut butter, or rye bread with smoked salmon, are two of the ideas in our low-cholesterol breakfast guide. Prefer a bowl? See our best cereal ranking, sorted by fibre.
Check any loaf before you buy it
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How we ranked them
We picked best-selling breads in the US and UK, from Dave's Killer Bread, Nature's Own and Pepperidge Farm to Warburtons, Hovis and Kingsmill, plus sourdough, rye, bagels, wraps and brioche, and took each one's nutrition data from Open Food Facts, an open database built from product labels. To catch mistakes, we compared each product's current record with an earlier copy and left out any where the saturated fat, fat or sugar didn't match or was missing. That excluded several records, including Dave's Killer Bread Good Seed, Wonder Classic White and Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted bread. We also checked that each record's fat, carbohydrate, protein and fibre added up to a realistic total for bread, to catch per-serving figures typed into the per 100g fields.
Saturated fat, fibre and sugar per serving are calculated from the per 100g values. Percentages are of 13g, the American Heart Association's suggested daily limit for saturated fat on a 2,000 calorie diet. The NHS upper limit is 20g a day for women and 30g for men. The full dataset and the script that builds it are kept with this page and refreshed periodically.
Bread and cholesterol: quick answers
What bread is best for high cholesterol?
100% wholemeal (whole wheat) or wholegrain rye bread. Nearly all bread is low in saturated fat, so the difference is fibre: in our comparison Dave's Killer Bread 21 Whole Grains, Nature's Own Whole Wheat and Schneider Brot Whole Grain Rye had 6 to 7g of fibre per 80g, about two slices, with 0 to 0.1g of saturated fat.
Is sourdough bread good for cholesterol?
Sourdough is low in saturated fat: Jason's Sourdough Grains & Seeds had 0.2g per 80g. But most sourdough is made from white flour, so it has less fibre than wholemeal (3.8g against 5 to 7g per 80g). Wholemeal or rye sourdough gives you the fibre too.
Is white bread bad for cholesterol?
White bread is low in saturated fat (Warburtons Toastie White had 0.4g per 80g), so it doesn't raise cholesterol directly. It is low in fibre, though: 1.8g per 80g against 5.1g for Warburtons Wholemeal. Swapping to wholemeal adds fibre, which is linked with lower heart disease risk.
Is rye bread good for cholesterol?
Wholegrain rye bread is one of the best choices. Schneider Brot Whole Grain Rye had 0.1g of saturated fat and 6.2g of fibre per 80g, and rye contains some soluble fibre. Light rye breads made mostly from wheat flour have less.
Is brioche bad for cholesterol?
Brioche is made with butter, eggs and sugar, so it has several times the saturated fat of ordinary bread: Brioche Pasquier rolls had 4g per 100g, or 2.8g for two rolls, against 0.3 to 0.5g per 100g for most sliced loaves. Fine as an occasional treat, but not an everyday bread.
Are wraps healthier than bread for cholesterol?
Not by much. Mission's UK Deli wrap had 0.7g of saturated fat per wrap and its US flour tortilla 1g per tortilla, similar to two slices of bread. Plain flour wraps have less fibre than wholemeal bread, so choose wholemeal wraps if you prefer them.
Sources
- Open Food Facts (product nutrition data, ODbL)
- American Heart Association: Whole grains, refined grains and dietary fiber
- American Heart Association: Saturated fat
- NHS: How to get more fibre into your diet
- NHS: Fat, the facts
- European Commission: Nutrition claims (source of fibre and high fibre thresholds, retained in UK law)