A nutritious weight-loss diet usually helps lower cholesterol levels because the foods you eat have heart-healthy benefits. Consuming too much food high in unhealthy fats raises harmful cholesterol in your bloodstream. Cholesterol can build up in the arteries and form plaques that block blood flow to the heart. This leads to atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, which causes heart disease. When arteries become completely blocked, it results in heart attack or stroke.
Improving Levels
Excess amounts of low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, cholesterol increase the risk of heart disease by clogging the arteries. High-density lipoprotein, called HDL, cholesterol picks up extra cholesterol in the blood vessels and delivers it to the liver, which disposes of it as waste. Low levels of LDL and high levels of HDL protect you from heart disease. Certain foods improve your cholesterol levels and also help you lose weight.
Low-Fat Protein
Protein foods help provide energy and build muscle tissue, but they often have high amounts of saturated fat, which raises LDL cholesterol. Consume lean meat with all visible fat trimmed off, chicken or turkey without fatty skin, fish, low-fat or nonfat dairy products and egg whites or egg substitutes. Limit your intake of meat, poultry and fish to 5 oz. or less a day, advises the National Cholesterol Education Program. Fish containing omega-3 fatty acids may help improve cholesterol levels and reduce your risk of heart disease. They include salmon, tuna, mackerel, herring, halibut and lake trout.
Fruits and Vegetables
Add more fruits and vegetables to your meals. Eating more of these low-fat foods helps prevent you from consuming high-fat foods. Choose fresh fruits and vegetables, frozen or canned fruit without added sugar and low-sodium canned or frozen vegetables. Avoid fried or breaded vegetables and vegetables in creamy sauces. Eat fruit, nuts and raw vegetable sticks for snacks instead of high-fat foods. Eliminate processed foods, such as fried foods in fast-food restaurants, and packaged snack foods that contain trans fat, which raises LDL and lowers protective HDL.
Whole Grains
Choose whole-grain foods, which provide more nutrients and fiber than refined grains. Select whole-grain and whole-wheat bread, whole-grain pasta, high-fiber cereal, whole-wheat flour, brown rice, barley, oatmeal and ground flaxseed. Whole grains support heart health and also give you a feeling of fullness to satisfy your hunger. By eating more of these heart-healthy foods and reducing fat intake, you protect yourself from unhealthy weight gain, a risk factor for high cholesterol and heart disease.
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