Diet for Patients With High Cholesterol

Overview

If you've just learned that you have high cholesterol, don't feel alone. According to the American Heart Association, an estimated 98.6 million adults over the age of 20 have blood cholesterol that's higher than 200 mg/dl. The good news is that you've identified the problem in time, so now it's time to get started. Most patients with high cholesterol begin with their diet. You can start with some basic tips but if after six months, you're not getting the results you want, you may need to enlist the help of a registered dietitian who specializes in lowering high cholesterol.

Step 1

Establish a goal for the maximum number of calories you can eat in one day. For most healthy men, it's approximately 2,000 calories a day. For women, it's slightly lower. When following the steps below, make a point to stay within your caloric limit.

Step 2

Write down everything you eat for one week: breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. Estimate the serving sizes and number of servings you eat. If you're not familiar with what an average serving size is, you can buy a food-weighing scale. Most products (except vegetables and fruits) are required to have labels indicating the weight of an average serving. You can also use the handy link at the bottom of this article to equate some common household objects to serving sizes. For instance, a single serving of fresh fruit is about the size of a household light bulb. A half cup is about the size of a racquetball. Three ounces of meat or poultry is about the size of a deck of cards.

Step 3

Replace canned or fast food with their fresh food equivalent. A good resource is the USDA Food Pyramid, which groups all foods into six categories: grains, vegetables, fruits, milk, meat and beans, and oils. The majority of your meal contents should be fresh fruits and vegetables.

Step 4

Limit your daily fat intake to less than 20 percent. Less than 7 percent should be saturated fat. Food containing saturated fat and trans fats can raise your LDL cholesterol. Replace butter and full fat dairy products with their reduced fat equivalents. Replace other high sources of fats with mono-unsaturated and polyunsaturated fats that have been shown to lower LDL cholesterol.

Step 5

Add at least two servings of fish a week to your diet. Certain types of cold-water fish like salmon, trout, sardines and mackerel contain omega-3 fatty acids that lower LDL cholesterol. If you don't care for the taste of fish, you can buy omega-3 fatty acid supplements in your local supermarket or health food store.