The foods you eat, including the amount of saturated fat, trans fat, sugar and cholesterol, affect your cholesterol levels and your susceptibility to heart disease. Limit dietary cholesterol, found in all animal products, to 200 mg to 300 mg a day. Follow the lower guidelines if conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, genetics or lifestyle put you at high risk for cardiovascular disease. The optimal intake for cholesterol per meal depends on your dietary preferences.
Optimal Intake
If you like to keep your meals perfectly balanced, the optimal intake for cholesterol per meal would range from 66 mg to 100 mg. If you like to eat large portions of meat at dinner, it would prove optimal to keep your cholesterol intake very low at lunch and breakfast. An 8-oz. cheeseburger, for instance, contains more than 200 mg of cholesterol. If you're a vegan, you don't have to worry about cholesterol intake at all -- only animal products contain cholesterol.
Breakfast
If you want to keep your cholesterol intake between 66 mg and 100 mg at breakfast, do not eat egg yolks. A single egg yolk contains 213 mg of cholesterol -- more than a full day's supply if you're at high risk for heart disease. On the other hand, an egg white omelet loaded with tomatoes, onions, green peppers, mushrooms and spinach contains no cholesterol if you use vegetable oil to coat your cooking pan. To keep your breakfast cholesterol intake within optimal limits, keep these cholesterol contents in mind: ham, 53 mg of cholesterol per 3 1/2-oz. serving; cheddar cheese, 30 mg per 1 oz.; and butter, 11 mg per teaspoon. Add nonfat milk instead of whole milk to your cereal, and save 29 mg of cholesterol per 1 cup -- 4 mg instead of 33 mg.
Lunch
At lunch, keep your cholesterol intake within optimal limits by choosing small portions of lean animal protein. A 3 1/2-oz. serving of skinless chicken contains 85 mg of cholesterol, but chicken liver contains 631 mg -- a two- to three-day supply -- per 3 1/2-oz. serving. Choices lower in cholesterol include water-packed tuna, at 30 mg per 3 1/2-oz. serving, and halibut, at 41 mg per 3 1/2-oz. serving. Good sources of cholesterol-free vegetable protein include kidney beans and tofu.
Dinner
If you're healthy and you've avoided cholesterol at breakfast and lunch, you could splurge on a 9-oz. piece of prime rib -- 210 mg of cholesterol -- without exceeding your optimal intake for the day. If you need to control your cholesterol at dinner, avoid making meat the main part of your meal. Add pork tenderloin --79 mg of cholesterol per 3 1/2-oz. serving -- to a vegetable stir-fry or 3 1/2 oz. of ham -- 53 mg of cholesterol -- to split pea soup or a salad. Avoid adding sour cream or butter to baked potatoes -- try topping them with broccoli or a bit of olive oil instead. Or opt for zero-cholesterol, plant-based dinners, such as black beans with brown rice or whole-wheat spaghetti with vegetables and marinara sauce.
References
- MayoClinic.com; Healthy Diet: End the Guesswork With These Nutrition Guidelines; February 2011
- University of California San Francisco Medical Center; Cholesterol Content of Foods; February 2011
- MayoClinic.com; Eggs -- Are They Good or Bad for My Cholesterol?; Thomas Behrenbeck, M.D.; December 2009
- Nutrient Facts: Prime Rib, Broiled
