If you eat meat, poultry, fish or cheese or if you drink milk or spread butter on your toast, your diet contains cholesterol. Whether you consume too much cholesterol depends on the type and amount of animal products in your diet. You don't need to give up meat to keep your cholesterol within healthy limits, but you do need to make careful choices about your sources of protein and calcium.
Daily Recommendations
Mayoclinic.com recommends you limit your daily cholesterol to 300 mg. You should consume less -- 200 mg -- if you're at higher than normal risk for developing heart disease. If you're older than 50, overweight or have diabetes, or if you smoke, you face a higher risk. A family or personal history of heart disease may sharply increase your risk. In addition to limiting your intake of cholesterol, you should also limit your consumption of saturated fat to between 16 g and 22 g daily and your consumption of trans fat to 2 g daily.
Foods High in Cholesterol
Organ meats such as chicken liver and beef liver contain more cholesterol per serving than any healthy diet can accommodate. Eggs should be limited on all diets and excluded if you're trying to keep your cholesterol intake to 200 mg daily. An egg contains 212 mg of cholesterol, all of it contained inside the yolk. Some foods are very high in cholesterol but contain little or no saturated fat. Consider the balance of fats in such foods as shrimp, containing 194 mg of cholesterol, and squid, containing 231 mg of cholesterol, but no saturated fat per 3 ½-oz. serving.
Lean Choices
Lean meat and dairy products contain less saturated fat than fatty ones. You can keep both your cholesterol and saturated fat consumption within recommended guidelines by choosing low-fat milk, cheese and yogurt, skinless chicken and extra-lean cuts of beef such as top round steak. Skinless chicken and hamburger contain similar amounts of cholesterol -- chicken contains slightly more -- but a 3 ½-oz. serving of chicken contains 2 g of saturated fat and the same portion of ground beef contains 7 g. Fish makes a good choice. Water-packed tuna contains just 30 mg of cholesterol and halibut 41 mg of cholesterol in a 3 ½-oz. serving. Neither contains saturated fat. Vegetable protein such as black beans, kidney beans and tofu contain no cholesterol.
Cooking Methods
Cooking methods affect the amount of cholesterol in your diet. Butter, for instance, contains 33 mg of cholesterol and 9 g of saturated fat in 1 tbsp. Margarine contains no cholesterol but it contains both saturated fat and trans fat. Trans fat, also found in shortening, can accumulate in your arteries in the same way that dietary cholesterol and saturated fats can. Olive oil contains no cholesterol or saturated fat. Mayoclinic.com recommends substituting 2 tbsp. of olive oil a day for other cooking fats.
References
- MayoClinic.com; Healthy Diet: End the Guesswork With These Nutrition Guidelines; February 2011
- University of California San Francisco; Cholesterol Content of Foods; February 2011
- MayoClinic.com; Cuts of Beef: A Guide to the Leanest Selections; November 2010
- MayoClinic.com; High Cholesterol: Top 5 Foods to Lower Your Numbers; May 7, 2010
