A 7-Day Meal Plan to Help Lower Cholesterol, Curated by a Dietitian

Your journey to heart health may begin with a colorful low- or no-cholesterol breakfast.
Image Credit: alvarez/E+/GettyImages

If you're looking to lower your cholesterol or you just want to get on the path to heart-healthy eating, you've come to the right place.

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Dietary cholesterol is only found in animal foods, so knowing the right foods to add and subtract from your diet is a good place to start when you're looking to lower your numbers. In a nutshell, a low-cholesterol meal plan involves reducing the amount of saturated and trans fats in your diet, and adding more plant foods to your diet.

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Warning

Do not stop taking your cholesterol-lowering medication unless directed by your doctor. Diet is just one strategy within a wider network to help lower your cholesterol. Have a discussion with your doctor about how diet, exercise and lifestyle changes can help you naturally lower your cholesterol.

What Is Cholesterol?

Cholesterol is a steroid that we make in the body and one that we get from food. That means even if you don't eat any animal foods (aka, you're on a vegan diet), your body still produces cholesterol on its own. We use cholesterol to make hormones and vitamin D, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

When you get your cholesterol checked, you'll often get a total cholesterol number that comes from adding your LDL and HDL together, plus 20 percent of your triglycerides. Here's a breakdown of each:

  • LDL cholesterol:‌ Also known as your "bad cholesterol." LDL, or low-density lipoproteins, carry cholesterol from the liver to other parts of the body. If you have a lot of LDL cholesterol in your blood, it can sometimes get stuck on the walls of your arteries and this buildup of cholesterol is called atherosclerosis.
  • HDL cholesterol:‌ Known as your "good cholesterol," HDL, or high-density lipoprotein, helps shuttle LDL cholesterol from the blood back to the liver to get rid of it.
  • Triglycerides:‌ This is a type of fat that the body produces on its own, but you can also get it from food. Many factors influence your triglyceride levels, including eating too much sugar, saturated fat and alcohol, according to the American Heart Association (AHA).

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Healthy cholesterol levels for adults over 20, according to the Cleveland Clinic, are:

  • LDL‌: Less than 100 mg/dL
  • HDL:‌ 50 mg/dL or higher for people assigned female at birth and 40 mg/dL or higher for people assigned male at birth
  • Triglycerides‌: Less than 150 mg/dL

How Much Cholesterol Should I Eat?

The thoughts on dietary cholesterol have changed in the last 10 years. In the 2015 to 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the recommendation on cholesterol intake was removed due to lack of evidence. (The same is true for the 2020 to 2025 guidelines.) Turns out, experts aren't convinced that dietary cholesterol has anything to do with the cholesterol in your blood.

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But there are some caveats to this: Foods high in cholesterol also tend to be high in saturated fat, and studies show that folks who ate high amounts of both were at higher risk for heart disease, according to a June 2018 review in Nutrients.

Remember the egg debate? Eggs are high in dietary cholesterol, but they are low in saturated fat. The AHA no longer recommends that you limit your dietary cholesterol if you have high numbers, but to limit your saturated fat and trans fat, as these are more likely to make your cholesterol numbers worse.

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What Does a Cholesterol-Lowering Diet Look Like?

You can think of a cholesterol-lowering diet as a heart-healthy diet. When you get right down to it, that's what you're doing — eating to protect your heart from the damaging effects of cholesterol build-up.

Eating for your heart is rooted in a plant-forward diet rich in fruits, vegetables, heart-healthy fats and whole grains. Not only are these foods high in vitamins and minerals, but they are also rich in fiber.

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Fiber has many benefits including improving your cholesterol and blood sugar levels. Fiber is typically classified into two types: soluble and insoluble. Most plant foods have a mixture of both types of fiber, but soluble fiber — the kind in oats, broccoli, peas and many fruits — grabs hold of cholesterol and pulls it from the body, helping to lower your levels.

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recommends that you get 14 grams of fiber per 1,000 calories in your diet. But there really isn't an upper limit for fiber — as long as you slowly increase it and drink plenty of water to reduce your risk of gastrointestinal discomfort.

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Foods to Fill Up On

  • Fruits‌: Apples, oranges, bananas, pears, peaches, berries
  • Vegetables‌: Broccoli, potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, peas, cauliflower, onions, squash
  • Legumes‌: Black beans, chickpeas, kidney beans, lentils
  • Nuts‌: Pistachios, cashews, almonds, walnuts
  • Whole grains‌: Quinoa, barley, oats, popcorn
  • Healthy fats‌: Olive oil, avocados, nut butters, olives
  • Lean proteins‌: Lean chicken, turkey, fish, eggs

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Foods to Eat in Moderation

  • Red meat‌: You'll want to especially limit red meats with a lot of marbling because they're high in saturated fat. Lean beef is a source of iron, so you don't need to avoid it completely — just limit it to 3 ounces or less per week if you have high cholesterol, per the Cleveland Clinic.
  • Full-fat dairy:‌ Cheese, butter and whole milk are rich in saturated fat. Choose reduced-fat versions when you can.
  • Added sugars:‌ While it might be recommended to avoid these completely, it's not realistic. A diet high in added sugars (over 50 grams per 2,000-calorie diet) is linked to a three-fold higher risk for heart disease, according to March-April 2016 research in Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases‌. The AHA recommends limiting your added sugars to no more than 25 to 36 grams per day. If it's helpful to remember numbers, it's roughly the same as the amount of fiber you should get in a day. Foods with added sugars include:
    • Pastries
    • Dairy desserts
    • Sodas
    • Candy

Foods to Avoid

Trans fat:‌ Found in highly processed and shelf-stable food. Although the FDA banned trans fats and phased them out of our food system back in 2020, manufacturers can still include the fats in products if the amount is less than 0.5 grams. To avoid those sneaky trans fats, look for the word "hydrogenated" in the ingredients list. Foods with trans fat can include:

  • Fast food
  • Pastries
  • Margarine and shortening
  • Refrigerated dough
  • Non-dairy coffee creamer

Tip

If your goal is to lower your cholesterol, there are two diet patterns that could be especially helpful: the Mediterranean Diet and the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet.

Both of these patterns are primarily plant-based and include lean proteins and heart-healthy fats. They are typically low in saturated fat, sodium and added sugar.

These plans can also help if you have high cholesterol ‌and‌ high blood sugar, as they are both high in fiber (which helps lower cholesterol and blood sugar levels).

Your 7-Day Meal Plan to Lower Cholesterol

Sunday

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Monday

  • Breakfast:‌ Raspberries are high in fiber and antioxidants, and you'll get a good dose of both nutrients in these Raspberry Pancakes from the blog The Endless Meal.
  • Lunch:‌ Black beans, turkey and corn make up this nutritions Turkey Taco Salad from the blog Chelsea's Messy Apron.
  • Dinner:‌ No added sugar and 11 grams of fiber to round out your day with The Best Homemade Tacos, from The Wholesome Dish blog.

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

  • Breakfast:‌ Breakfast is as delicious as dessert with Chocolate Strawberry Oatmeal from the blog I Love Vegan.
  • Lunch:‌ Peanut butter adds a nice, unexpected flavor to this Easy Vegetarian Chili from the blog Eating Bird Food.
  • Dinner:‌ Low in sodium and high in fiber, pair this Oven Roasted Broccoli from blogger Debra Klein with a piece of roasted cod or chicken breast for a complete dinner.

Saturday

Can Apple Cider Vinegar and Grape Juice Lower Cholesterol?

As a dietitian, I’m a no on apple cider vinegar. All of the research done on apple cider vinegar for cholesterol are on animals, and so there's no evidence that suggests it can help lower cholesterol in humans.

The same goes for grape juice — there's no solid human evidence that it can lower cholesterol. Plus, fruit juice is high in sugar and can raise your blood sugar levels.

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