Keeping your cholesterol at the recommended levels can help to lower your risk for a number of health conditions, including heart disease, heart attack and stroke. What you eat affects your cholesterol levels, making the proper diet important for controlling your cholesterol levels. One of the main dietary recommendations for lowering cholesterol levels is to eat less saturated fat.
Cholesterol Recommendations
For optimal heart health, your total cholesterol levels should be below 200 mg/dL; low-density lipoprotein levels, below 100 mg/dL; and high-density lipoprotein levels, above 60 mg/dL, according to the American Heart Association. When decreasing your total cholesterol, you want to lower your LDL cholesterol, not your HDL cholesterol, as HDL cholesterol is protective against heart disease.
Saturated Fat and Cholesterol
Eating too much saturated fat is one of the main reasons people develop high cholesterol, according to the American Heart Association. All types of fat can affect cholesterol levels. Saturated fats raise total cholesterol levels, including both the harmful LDL cholesterol and the beneficial HDL cholesterol, while unsaturated fats lower LDL and raise HDL. Although you need to consume some types of unsaturated fats for good health, you don't need to consume any saturated fat, although it is hard to totally avoid this fat in your diet.
Saturated Fat Recommendations
You should keep your total fat consumption below 35 percent of your daily calories, with saturated fats making up 7 percent or less of your daily calories, recommends the American Heart Association. Eating too much fat will increase your risk for heart disease since it increases your LDL cholesterol and your risk for plaque buildup in your arteries. It also increases your risk for obesity, which further increases your heart disease risk.
Decreasing Dietary Saturated Fat
Animal products, such as meat, dairy products, poultry and seafood, contain saturated fat, as do palm oil, coconut oil, cocoa butter and palm kernel oil. Replacing red meat, which is particularly high in saturated fat, with fish, lean poultry or vegetarian protein sources like nuts and beans, which contain less fat, and opting for reduced-fat dairy products can help to lower your saturated fat consumption. Use olive oil or other vegetable oils in place of butter to replace some of your saturated fats with heart-healthy unsaturated fats. Limit fried foods, and eat mainly foods that are naturally low in fat.
