A. Often it’s just as hard to put on weight as it is to lose weight, particularly if you come from a family with a tall slender build which you’ve no doubt inherited. On the plus side, as you get older, your skinny build will become an advantage as you’re less likely to succumb to heart troubles or diabetes, conditions which are aggravated by being overweight.

The question in full

Q. I've read that margarine is bad for you as it is hydrogenated and so is high in trans fats. Is this correct?

Meeting up at the bar or pub? Sharing a drink with friends? These are the times when you notice salty snacks everywhere – potato crisps, corn chips, beer nuts, cashews, pretzels and rice cracker snacks. Salty snacks fly under the radar – no one remembers eating them. Yet they’re a big problem for health and may explain why you can’t lose weight. Here’s my take on them.

A.   Monounsaturated fats have only one double bond in their carbon chain (hence the term "mono"), while polyunsaturated have two, three or more of these bonds ("poly" means many). Understanding this difference in their structure will help us understand the role they have in our health.

It all depends on your health profile.

If you have high cholesterol or a history of heart disease, go for a soft margarine OR a margarine with added sterols (Logicol, Pro-activ) that block cholesterol absorption.

If you have high cholesterol, then you've probably heard of things called plant sterols. But you may be wondering what the heck are plant sterols and what do they do? And should you be consuming them? Read on.

This post has been sponsored by Heart Active

Milk. It’s one of those basic foods that’s been in our lives ever since our toddler days. Like all full-fat dairy foods, milk contains saturated fat and is often avoided if your doctor suddenly announces that you have to lower your cholesterol and you’re a sitting duck if you don’t do something FAST.

Fortunately, there are many good-tasting no-fat, low-fat and skim milks on offer but if you’re out to lower your cholesterol then why not drink a milk that will actively help? Having put my husband on it as part of his cholesterol-lowering diet, I thought it was time to take a closer look at HeartActive.

A. Fat and cholesterol are two separate components of food. Only animal foods such as prawns, eggs, meat and milk contain cholesterol, while plant-based foods do not.