According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010, you should consume less than 300 mg of dietary cholesterol per day, but most people exceed that recommendation. If you're looking to reduce the amount of cholesterol you consume, be vigilant about cholesterol levels in all the foods you consume, especially those you'd never guess contained so much cholesterol per serving.
Meat
The source of dietary cholesterol is meat and other animal-based products. This means every steak, cheeseburger and piece of chicken you eat has a measure of cholesterol in it. If you want to cut back on high-cholesterol foods, avoid multi-meat products such as double- and triple-patty burgers and submarine sandwiches. Particularly high in cholesterol are organ meats, such as liver, kidneys and gizzards. A single slice of pan-fried beef liver, for example, contains about 309 mg of cholesterol. One strip of bacon contains about 9 mg. In addition, poultry such as duck and goose has more cholesterol than chicken or turkey. The meat in half a goose roasted with the skin on it contains about 704 mg.
Dairy
Whole-milk dairy products are high in cholesterol. These include milk, butter, cream, ice cream, cream cheese and the much-maligned egg. A cup of scrambled eggs can supply as much as 609 mg of cholesterol. A cup of the "Boston Cream Pie" flavor of a well-known ice cream producer can serve up 180 mg of cholesterol. You should also consider products that you might not consciously associate with dairy, but which are made with dairy, such as cakes and other baked desserts, and breakfast foods such as pancakes and waffles.
Oils and Fats
The oil supplements you take for general health might be high in cholesterol. For example, cod liver and other fish oils can contain up to 25 mg of cholesterol in just one teaspoon. A tablespoon of lard contains 12 mg of cholesterol. As a point of reference, lard is often used in dessert products, especially pie crusts and cream fillings in cookies. A tablespoon of beef tallow --- fat rendered from cows and used like lard to make oils --- contains about 14 mg of cholesterol.
Shellfish
The NYU Langone Medical Center says shellfish's cholesterol levels are not as threatening to health as commonly believed. Previously, scientists overestimated cholesterol content by simply measuring all of a certain group of chemical compounds that included cholesterol. Now they are able to distinguish what's cholesterol and what's not. In reality, shellfish's cholesterol content is comparable to meat and poultry, but considering the amount of meat in a serving of shellfish, you might view its level as still pretty high. For example, a cup of lobster meat contains 212 mg, a king crab leg 71 mg and 3 oz. of steamed shrimp, 179 mg.
A Caveat
Eating cholesterol in your diet doesn't mean you'll have high cholesterol in your blood. Although dietary cholesterol plays a role, the amount of saturated fat and trans fat you eat makes a bigger difference in cholesterol measurements. Trans fat, found in products with ingredients described as "partially hydrogenated," can lower your good blood cholesterol, called HDL, which shuttles bad cholesterol, or LDL, out of your system. Moreover, fish oils and shellfish have properties that allow them to lower your cholesterol.
References
- USDA: Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010
- USDA: National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference
- NYU Langone Medical Center: All about Shellfish
- Harvard School of Public Health: Fats and Cholesterol -- Out with the Bad, In with the Good
- Institute of Medicine: Dietary Reference Intakes -- Macronutrients
- SeaGrant Minnesota; Fish Oil and Your Health
