When we talk about the different types of cholesterol circulating in our blood, we’re usually talking about lipoproteins. That’s because cholesterol cannot travel around our body to where it’s needed - as it’s not able to mix with our blood - so out liver packs cholesterol and fat into water-soluble vehicles called lipoproteins. These combos of cholesterol, proteins and fat are called lipoproteins (lipo comes from the Greek word for fat). There are two main groups of lipoproteins: non-high density lipoproteins (non-HDL) or so-called ‘bad’ cholesterol and high-density lipoproteins (HDL) - 'good' cholesterol