The short answer
Plain, lighter biscuits made with rapeseed (canola) oil had the least saturated fat: Teddy Grahams, belVita, Honey Maid graham crackers and Fig Newtons had 0.5g or less per 30g. Cream-filled, chocolate-coated and butter biscuits had the most, led by Walkers shortbread at 5.3g, about 41% of a 13g daily limit in two or so biscuits.
- Best overall: belVita Breakfast Biscuits, 0.3g (US) and 0.4g (UK) per 30g, with some wholegrain oats and wheat
- Best US cookie: Teddy Grahams Honey (0g on the label) or Honey Maid Graham Crackers (0.5g)
- Best UK biscuit: McVitie's Jaffa Cakes, 1.2g per 30g (about 2 to 3 cakes)
- Limit: Walkers Pure Butter Shortbread (5.3g), custard creams (4.1g), bourbons (4.0g) and milk chocolate digestives (3.9g)
Label data only, not medical advice
This ranking compares what each pack's nutrition label says about saturated fat and sugar. It isn't a health rating of any brand, and no biscuit here lowers cholesterol. Recipes change, so check the label on the pack you buy. If your doctor or dietitian has given you specific limits, follow those.
22 cookies and biscuits ranked by saturated fat
Every product is compared on the same 30g serving, close to the US 1 oz label serving for cookies. That's about 2 McVitie's Digestives or Hobnobs, 3 to 4 Rich Tea, 4 Lotus Biscoff, 8 Nilla Wafers or a little under 2 Walkers shortbread rounds. Bands: Better 2g or less per serving, Occasional over 2g up to 4.5g, Treat over 4.5g. Nine were Better, twelve Occasional and one, shortbread, a Treat.
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| Teddy Grahams Honey | 0g | Better |
| belVita Breakfast Biscuits | 0.3g | Better |
| belVita Breakfast Biscuits | 0.4g | Better |
| Honey Maid Graham Crackers | 0.5g | Better |
| Newtons Fig Newtons | 0.5g | Better |
| McVitie's Jaffa Cakes | 1.2g | Better |
| Lorna Doone Shortbread Cookies | 1.4g | Better |
| Nilla Wafers | 1.5g | Better |
| Oreo Original (UK) | 1.6g | Better |
| Oreo Original | 2.1g | Occasional |
| Crawford's Ginger Nuts | 2.2g | Occasional |
| McVitie's Rich Tea | 2.2g | Occasional |
| Lotus Biscoff | 2.4g | Occasional |
| McVitie's Hobnobs | 2.6g | Occasional |
| Chips Ahoy! Original | 2.7g | Occasional |
| McVitie's Digestives | 3g | Occasional |
| Pepperidge Farm Milano | 3.6g | Occasional |
| Fox's Crunch Creams | 3.7g | Occasional |
| McVitie's Milk Chocolate Digestives | 3.9g | Occasional |
| McVitie's Bourbon Creams | 4g | Occasional |
| Crawford's Custard Creams | 4.1g | Occasional |
| Walkers Pure Butter Shortbread Rounds | 5.3g | Treat |
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
- The fat in the recipe decides the rank. Teddy Grahams and Honey Maid are made with canola or soybean oil and had 0 to 0.5g per 30g. Rich Tea, Hobnobs, Ginger Nuts, Bourbons and Custard Creams use palm oil, which is about half saturated fat, and had 2.2 to 4.1g. Walkers shortbread is just flour, butter, sugar and salt, and had the most: 17.7g per 100g.
- Fillings and coatings add up. A plain McVitie's Digestive had 3g per 30g; the milk chocolate version had 3.9g. Cream sandwich biscuits (Bourbons 4.0g, Custard Creams 4.1g, Fox's Crunch Creams 3.7g) were near the top of the Occasional band.
- Most biscuits count as "high" in the UK. 14 of the 22 had more than 5g of saturated fat per 100g, the UK front-of-pack threshold for a red "high" label. Only belVita, Teddy Grahams, Honey Maid, Fig Newtons, Jaffa Cakes, Lorna Doone and Nilla Wafers were at or under it.
- The same brand can differ by country. UK Oreos had 1.6g per 30g and US Oreos 2.1g (5.2g against 6.9g per 100g).
- Lighter biscuits help with portions too. A 30g serving is 8 Nilla Wafers but only about 2 Digestives, so a handful of small biscuits can be a smaller portion than it looks.
- US labels round. US Nutrition Facts round saturated fat under 0.5g per serving down to 0g, so Teddy Grahams' 0g could be up to about 0.5g. UK labels give per 100g figures to one decimal place.
What to look for on the pack
- Check the fat in the ingredients. Butter, palm oil, palm kernel oil, coconut oil and "vegetable fats (palm, shea)" in chocolate coatings all add saturated fat. Rapeseed (canola), sunflower and soybean oil add much less. Our cooking oil guide compares them.
- Read the saturates per 100g. In the UK, 1.5g or less per 100g is low and more than 5g is high. Most biscuits will be high, so use it to compare two packs rather than to find a "healthy" one.
- Count the biscuits. UK labels often give "per biscuit" figures. Multiply by how many you actually eat.
- Prefer wholegrain oats and fruit. Hobnobs (39% wholegrain oats), belVita and Fig Newtons get some of their bulk from wholegrains or fruit rather than fat. Oats contain beta-glucan, a soluble fibre, though the amount in a couple of biscuits is small.
- Watch the sugar as well. Fig Newtons were low in saturated fat but had 12.9g of sugar per 30g, and Jaffa Cakes 15g.
Easy swaps
- Custard Creams or Bourbons (4.0 to 4.1g) → Jaffa Cakes (1.2g) or Ginger Nuts (2.2g)
- Milk chocolate digestives (3.9g) → Rich Tea (2.2g) or belVita (0.4g)
- Walkers shortbread (5.3g) → Lorna Doone (1.4g), a shortbread-style cookie made with canola and palm oil
- Chips Ahoy! (2.7g) or Milano (3.6g) → Nilla Wafers (1.5g) or graham crackers (0.5g)
- Baking your own? Swapping butter for a rapeseed-based spread or oil cuts most of the saturated fat. Our baking for high cholesterol guide has three recipes, and our butter and spreads ranking shows which spreads have the least.
How biscuits fit into a day
A 13g daily limit leaves room for a couple of biscuits with tea if most of the day's food is low in saturated fat. Our guide to how much saturated fat per day explains why saturated fat matters more for LDL than the cholesterol in food.
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How we ranked them
We picked best-selling cookies in the US and biscuits in the UK, from Oreo and Chips Ahoy! to McVitie's, Fox's and Walkers, 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, then swapped in another record for the same biscuit where we could. That replaced the records for McVitie's Digestives, Ginger Nuts and Walkers shortbread, and left out McVitie's Digestives Light, whose records disagreed. We also left out records whose per 100g figures were really per serving, a common error for US products.
All products are compared on 30g, 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.
Biscuits and cholesterol: quick answers
Which biscuits are low in saturated fat?
In our comparison, belVita Breakfast Biscuits (0.3 to 0.4g per 30g), Teddy Grahams (0g on the US label), Honey Maid graham crackers and Fig Newtons (0.5g) and McVitie’s Jaffa Cakes (1.2g) were lowest. Biscuits made with rapeseed (canola) oil and without chocolate, cream filling or butter tend to have the least.
Are digestive biscuits good for cholesterol?
Not especially. McVitie’s Digestives had 3g of saturated fat per 30g (about 2 biscuits), 23% of a 13g daily limit, and 10.1g per 100g, which counts as high on UK labels. They are made with palm oil. Rich Tea (2.2g) and Hobnobs (2.6g) had a little less, and chocolate digestives more (3.9g).
What cookies are good for high cholesterol?
No cookie lowers cholesterol, but some have much less saturated fat than others. Graham crackers, Teddy Grahams, belVita and Fig Newtons all had 0.5g or less per 30g. Pepperidge Farm Milano (3.6g) and Chips Ahoy! (2.7g) had several times more.
Are Oreos bad for cholesterol?
Oreos had 2.1g of saturated fat per 30g (about 3 cookies) in the US and 1.6g in the UK, mostly from palm oil. That is a moderate amount, about 12 to 16% of a 13g daily limit, so a few now and then fit into a heart-healthy diet. They are also high in sugar, at 11 to 13g per 30g.
Is shortbread bad for cholesterol?
Butter shortbread had the most saturated fat of anything we compared. Walkers Pure Butter Shortbread had 5.3g per 30g, about 41% of a 13g daily limit, because butter is its only fat. Lorna Doone, a shortbread-style cookie made with canola and palm oil, had 1.4g.
Are Jaffa Cakes good for high cholesterol?
Jaffa Cakes are one of the lower options in the UK biscuit aisle: 1.2g of saturated fat per 30g (about 2 to 3 cakes) in our table. They are high in sugar, though, with 15g per 30g, so they are still a treat.
Sources
- Open Food Facts (product nutrition data, ODbL)
- American Heart Association: Saturated fat
- NHS: Fat, the facts
- NHS: How to lower your cholesterol
- UK Department of Health: Front of pack nutrition labelling guidance (high and low saturates thresholds)
- FDA: Reference amounts customarily consumed (21 CFR 101.12) (30g for cookies)