Cutting back on red meat and running on the treadmill may help lower your cholesterol, but if you eat a slice of chocolate cake every night after dinner, you may not be doing enough to reduce your numbers. Foods that are high in trans fat and saturated fat will raise your cholesterol levels, and sweet treats like baked goods are no exception. Talk to your doctor before making any changes in your diet, especially if you have allergies or health conditions.
Types of Cholesterol
Eating sweets that are high in trans fat and saturated fat may increase your bad low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, cholesterol, while simultaneously lowering your good high-density lipoprotein, or HDL, cholesterol. Whole milk, shortening, butter and cream, which are common ingredients in both homemade and store-bought desserts, are high in saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol, which may raise your LDL levels and lower your HDL levels.
Aim to get no more than 10 percent of the calories you consume from saturated fat. If you consume 2,000 calories every day, about 200 calories may be from saturated fat. Remove trans fats from your diet completely, if possible, and limit your cholesterol intake to 300 mg per day. If you have heart disease, limit your cholesterol intake to 200 mg per day.
Cholesterol-Raising Sweets
Desserts like cake, cookies, doughnuts, danishes and brownies are high in saturated fat -- and if the sweets are made with lard or vegetable shortening, they may also contain trans fat. A piece of chocolate cake, for example, contains 350 calories, 16 g of fat and 42 g of cholesterol. And although a croissant is more savory than a piece of cake, a croissant contains 339 calories, 17 g of fat and 50 mg of cholesterol.
Cutting Back
If you're used to eating a danish for breakfast and a few cookies for dessert, going cold turkey may seem impossible. The fewer calories you consume the better, so cutting as many sweet treats out of your diet as possible is ideal. But if you can't say goodbye to cake and cookies, make them at home using low-fat milk and butter instead of shortening and whole milk. Although your treats will still contain saturated fat, they won't contain any trans fat, which may help lower your cholesterol levels.
Healthy Substitutions
Keep your mind off doughnuts and danishes by eating a filling breakfast, like oatmeal with almonds, apples, cinnamon and honey on top. That breakfast is high in fiber, which will lower your LDL levels and raise your HDL levels. When you're craving dessert at night, opt for a frozen fruit pop or a few hard candies instead. Three hard caramel candies contain approximately 70 calories, but no fat. You can still indulge in a sweet snack while lowering your bad cholesterol and raising your good cholesterol at the same time.
