Your body makes all the cholesterol it needs. You don't need to include cholesterol in your diet. So, no minimum daily requirement exists. You can, on the other hand, consume too much cholesterol and other dietary fats. To help protect against heart disease, follow guidelines about the maximum amount of cholesterol you should consume daily.
Cholesterol Tests
Your cholesterol blood tests reveal four important pieces of information about your risk of strokes and heart attacks: your low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, cholesterol; your high-density lipoprotein, or HDL, cholesterol; your triglycerides and your total cholesterol, the balance between the three types of blood fat. LDL cholesterol, also known as the "bad" cholesterol, can accumulate in your arteries and make it difficult for blood to flow to your heart and other vital organs. Triglycerides can also form plaque on the walls of your arteries. HDL, the "good" cholesterol, improves your overall cholesterol by helping your body eliminate LDL cholesterol and triglycerides.
Cholesterol Recommendations
You should limit your total daily cholesterol to 300 mg, according to MayoClinic.com. Keep it lower -- below 200 mg -- if factors beyond dietary cholesterol put you at a higher risk for developing heart disease. Risk factors include your age, gender and family history of heart disease. If you're overweight or suffer from diabetes, you should also follow the lower limits. To limit cholesterol, cut back sharply on your consumption of fatty animal products such as eggs, organ meats and whole milk. A single egg contains 212 mg of cholesterol.
Cholesterol Content of Foods
Cholesterol comes from animal products. To keep your cholesterol intake below recommended levels, choose lean meat and low-fat dairy. A 3.5-oz. serving of tuna, for instance, contains 30 mg of cholesterol, while the same portion of skinless chicken yields 85 mg. A 3.5-oz serving of beef liver contains 389 mg of dietary cholesterol. An 8-oz glass of non-fat milk contains 4 mg of cholesterol, compared to 10 mg in low-fat milk and 33 mg in whole milk.
Other Fats
You should also limit the amount of other fat in your diet. MayoClinic.com recommends you keep saturated fat consumption to between 7 and 10 percent of your total daily calories and trans fat consumption to 1 percent of your daily calories. Saturated fat, found in animal products and tropical oils, can raise your LDL cholesterol. If you eat commercial baked goods, check nutrition labels for cholesterol, trans fat and saturated fats. All three of these fats can boost your body cholesterol to unhealthy labels. Fried food can also contain unhealthy fat. A raw potato contains no cholesterol, but french fries could contain cholesterol, trans fat and saturated fats, depending on the oil used to cook them.
