Yes. Hummus is low in saturated fat, has no cholesterol, and is a far better dip or spread than cheese, mayonnaise or cream cheese.
Two tablespoons of shop-bought hummus has about 0.8 g of saturated fat and 0 mg of cholesterol. Its fat comes mostly from tahini (sesame paste) and oil, which are largely unsaturated. Chickpeas are a pulse, and trials show that eating pulses every day lowers LDL cholesterol a little. The thing to watch is what you scoop it up with.
Hummus: nutrition per serving
| Food and serving | Sat fat | Cholesterol | Fibre | kcal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hummus, shop-bought2 tbsp (30 g) · FDC 174289 | 0.8 g | 0 mg | 1.6 g | 71 |
| Hummus, home-made2 tbsp (30 g) · FDC 172454 | 0.3 g | 0 mg | 1.2 g | 53 |
| Chickpeas, boiled½ cup (82 g) · FDC 173757 | 0.2 g | 0 mg | 6.2 g | 134 |
| Tahini (sesame paste)1 tbsp (15 g) · FDC 170189 | 1.1 g | 0 mg | 1.4 g | 89 |
| Cream cheese, for comparison2 tbsp (30 g) · FDC 173418 | 6.1 g | 30 mg | 0 g | 105 |
The home-made figure is USDA's standard recipe, which uses less tahini and oil than most shop-bought tubs. USDA does not split chickpea fibre into soluble and insoluble. Source: USDA FoodData Central (public domain); search the FDC number to see the full record. Values are rounded and vary by brand and recipe.
Hummus against your daily saturated fat
Hummus barely registers. You could eat a quarter of a tub (about 4 tablespoons) and use around 12% of a 13 g day. The same amount of cream cheese would use nearly all of it.
Bars show each serving against about 13 g a day, the American Heart Association's target (under 6% of 2,000 calories) for people lowering LDL. Work out your own number with the saturated fat calculator.
Why chickpeas help with LDL
A 2014 meta-analysis in the Canadian Medical Association Journal pooled 26 randomised trials (1,037 people) of diets rich in pulses: beans, chickpeas, lentils and peas. Eating about 130 g of cooked pulses a day, roughly one serving, lowered LDL cholesterol by 0.17 mmol/L (about 7 mg/dL) compared with similar diets without them. The authors called for longer, higher-quality trials, so treat it as a modest, real effect rather than a cure.
A couple of tablespoons of hummus contains far less chickpea than that. So hummus helps mainly by what it replaces: a dip made of chickpeas and sesame instead of one made of cheese, cream or mayonnaise. For the pulse effect itself, eat chickpeas, beans or lentils as part of meals too.
Shop-bought vs home-made
Hummus is made from chickpeas, tahini, oil, lemon and garlic, and recipes vary in how much tahini and oil they use. That's why USDA's shop-bought sample has 0.8 g of saturated fat per 2 tablespoons and its home-made recipe only 0.3 g. Both are low. The UK label threshold for "low" saturated fat is 1.5 g per 100 g, and shop-bought hummus is a little above that at about 2.6 g per 100 g, almost all of it from sesame and plant oils.
Flavoured hummus is usually fine. The exceptions are versions topped with cheese (feta, halloumi) or swirled with chorizo oil, so check the label on those.
Making it yourself is quick: blend a drained tin of chickpeas with a tablespoon of tahini, lemon juice, garlic and a splash of the tin water. Or try the white bean hummus with veg sticks.
Better ways to eat it
- Dip with vegetables: carrot, pepper, cucumber, sugar snap peas. Adds fibre and almost no saturated fat.
- Wholemeal pitta instead of white, or a few pitta chips instead of cheese crackers.
- As a sandwich spread instead of butter or mayonnaise, with chicken, falafel or roasted vegetables.
- On a jacket potato instead of butter and cheese.
- Thinned as a dressing with lemon juice and water for salads and grain bowls.
For crunchy chickpeas without the dip, try roasted chickpeas.
How much is sensible?
Saturated fat isn't the limit here, calories are: about 70 per 2 tablespoons. Two to four tablespoons as a dip or spread is a normal portion. Shop-bought hummus also carries some salt, so if you have high blood pressure, compare labels and favour lower-salt tubs.
General information, not medical advice
This page is for education and doesn't diagnose or treat anything. If you have high cholesterol, take medication or have another health condition, check changes to your diet with your doctor or a registered dietitian.
Frequently asked questions
Is hummus low in cholesterol?
Yes. Hummus contains no cholesterol at all, because it is made from plants: chickpeas, sesame, oil and lemon. It is also low in saturated fat, with about 0.8 g per 2 tablespoon serving.
Is hummus good for lowering cholesterol?
It can help. Chickpeas are a pulse, and a meta-analysis of 26 trials found that about one serving of pulses a day lowered LDL by about 0.17 mmol/L (7 mg/dL). A few spoonfuls of hummus contain less chickpea than that, so hummus helps most when it replaces cheese, mayonnaise or butter.
Is the tahini in hummus bad for cholesterol?
No. Tahini is sesame paste. A tablespoon has about 1.1 g of saturated fat, and most of its fat is unsaturated. It is the main reason hummus is creamy without dairy.
How much hummus can I eat a day?
Two to four tablespoons is a sensible portion. Saturated fat isn't the problem, but hummus has about 70 calories and some salt per 2 tablespoons.
What should I eat with hummus if I have high cholesterol?
Vegetable sticks, wholemeal pitta, wholegrain crackers or a jacket potato. Avoid pairing it with cheese-topped crackers or crisps fried in palm oil, which add the saturated fat the hummus saves.
Scan or log hummus in Heart Tracker
Scan the tub to log its saturated fat and fibre per serving, or search for hummus and pick the closest match. Heart Tracker adds it to your daily totals, so you can see what swapping a cheese dip for hummus does to your day.
Download Heart Tracker FreeRelated guides
Sources
- Ha V, et al. Effect of dietary pulse intake on established therapeutic lipid targets for cardiovascular risk reduction: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. CMAJ. 2014;186(8):E252–62.
- USDA FoodData Central: hummus, commercial (FDC 174289); hummus, home prepared (172454); chickpeas, boiled (173757); tahini, roasted kernels (170189); cream cheese (173418).
- NHS: Fat, the facts (label thresholds: low is 1.5 g saturates or less per 100 g, high is more than 5 g).
- American Heart Association: Saturated fat.