When you develop high cholesterol, doctors generally start out treating your condition with the most conservative measures available. It's a standard practice, since your body shouldn't be subjected to medications or procedure it doesn't necessarily need. With high blood cholesterol, also known as hypercholesterolemia, one of the more conservative and effective approaches to treatment, according to the Mayo Clinic, is diet. But this isn't a diet that consists of cutting calories, though this can be helpful for people overweight, it actually entails the elimination of certain foods.
Saturated Fats
One of the more important foods to eliminate isn't actually a food at all. It's saturated fat. Saturated fats are typically found in animal-based products, so you'll want to eliminate many of these foods from your eating habits. According to the Mayo Clinic, the amount of saturated fat in your diet should be no more than 10 percent of your caloric intake. That means that a diet made up of 1,900 calories should contain no more than 190 calories from saturated fat.
Butter is one of the bigger culprits, coming in at 7g of saturated fat per serving, which is right around 36 percent of your daily allowance. But you can also find it in cheese, sour cream, ice cream and other whole-fat dairy products. Many meats contain high amounts of saturated fat, including beef, pork, bacon, sausage and deli meats. Snack foods like cookies, brownies, cakes, muffins, chips and microwave popcorn also contain a lot of saturated fats. Limit many of these foods or eliminate them from your diet.
Trans Fats
Another key product to eliminate from your diet is trans fat. Trans fats are found in more convenience-based foods, so you can make quite an impact on the amount in your diet by avoiding many of the prepackaged foods on the market. According to the Mayo Clinic, the amount of trans fat allowed in a healthy diet is actually zero, especially if you're already dealing with high cholesterol. This will take a lot more effort on your part to eliminate these foods from your eating regimen.
Eliminate most (if not all) canned soups, frozen meals, packaged meal helpers, baking mixes (cookies, brownies, cakes and muffins), margarines, chips, crackers, cookies, baked goods and fried foods. Fried foods also include the meals from those handy drive-through windows.
Cholesterol
Last, but not least, you'll also need to eliminate (or limit) many of the foods containing dietary cholesterol. According to the Mayo Clinic, the amount of cholesterol allowed in a healthy diet is 300mg. But you may want to lower this number to right around 200mg, especially while dealing with high cholesterol.
Eggs are by far the most significant offenders, coming in at a whopping 215mg per serving. That's over 70 percent of your daily allowance. Of course, the majority of the cholesterol is found in the yolk, so eliminate eggs or switch to egg whites. Beef, pork and lamb are also high in cholesterol. And you should cut down on any food product made with whole-fat milk as well.
