Your liver makes cholesterol, about 1,000 milligrams per day according to the American Heart Association. You can also eat cholesterol, but cholesterol is only found in animal-based foods. The Mayo Clinic recommends limiting your cholesterol intake to 300 mg per day for a heart healthy diet. Meal planning and preparation can help you reduce total cholesterol in your everyday foods.
Cooking and Food Preparation Tips
The easiest way to avoid eating excess cholesterol is by reducing your meat and dairy intake. How you cook and prepare your meats can decrease the amount of cholesterol that they contain. Choose a leaner cut of meat with low fat content as your first method of cutting down on cholesterol. Before cooking, you can trim any excess skin or fat off of your meat. Roasting, baking or broiling allows fat to drip off the meat. If you cook meats ahead of time, then refrigerate, such as a soup or stew, you can remove excess fat from the top that has hardened.
Breakfast
Breakfast should focus on plant-based foods such as fruit or whole-grain carbohydrates. A sample breakfast includes a serving of applesauce, with a plain English muffin and a low-fat yogurt. You can top your English muffin with two teaspoons of soft margarine. If you are craving a protein, replace your English muffin with a scrambled egg white topped with low-fat cheddar cheese.
Lunch
Part of eating for low cholesterol involves incorporating seafood into your diet twice a week, according to the American Heart Association. A good choice for lunch is a tuna sandwich. For a low-cholesterol tuna sandwich, place drained tuna on a slice of whole-wheat bread. If desired, spread one tablespoon of low-fat mayonnaise on the other slice of bread. Top your tuna with lettuce, tomatoes and onion, then place bread slices together and enjoy. Your tuna sandwich can be accompanied by a serving of baby carrots and a medium-sized apple.
Dinner
Chicken is one of the lowest fat and cholesterol meats and is a great protein to include for dinner. Consider roasting a skinless chicken breast topped with a little pepper and any other seasoning you enjoy. You can accompany your chicken breast with a serving of brown rice or couscous, steamed broccoli and a whole-wheat roll topped with soft margarine.
References
- American Heart Association: Cholesterol
- Mayo Clinic.com: Healthy Diet: End the Guesswork With These Nutrition Guidelines
- American Heart Association: Cooking for Lower Cholesterol
- "Exercise Testing and Prescription"; David C. Nieman; 2007
