High blood cholesterol puts you at risk for developing heart disease. What you eat contributes to a high cholesterol level---but by choosing the right foods, your diet can contribute to a lower one too. Focus on eating foods that help lower your bad cholesterol and avoid foods that boost it to maximize heart health.
Significance
Cholesterol is not automatically bad---it exists in all cells and helps regulate hormones and digestion. Cholesterol becomes a problem when the low-density lipoproteins (LDL) that carry it through the blood build up in the arteries and create blockages---potentially leading to a heart attack. High-density lipoproteins (HDL), the "good" kind, actually clean up your blood and take cholesterol back to the liver for processing. The National Cholesterol Education Program recommends maintaining total cholesterol levels of 200 mg/dl or lower. Your HDL numbers may actually be more important in indicating health---doctors recommend keeping your HDL over 60 mg/dl. Diet plays a significant role in both increasing your overall cholesterol numbers, and in lowering them.
Features
A cholesterol lowering diet includes foods that are low in saturated fats, trans fats and dietary cholesterol. Strive to consume less than 7 percent of your total daily fat calories in the form of saturated fat and less than 200 mg of added cholesterol per day. Focusing on foods containing soluble fiber, omega 3 fatty acids, mono-unsaturated fats, and plant sterols and stanols boosts your body's ability to lower LDL.
Foods to Include
Go for high fiber foods such as oatmeal, kidney beans, eggplant, apples, barley and prunes. Pick fish with high levels of omega 3 fatty acids such as sardines, salmon, tuna and herring. Walnuts, almonds and pistachios contain healthy fats and fiber that help lower LDL. Include margarine, orange juice and yogurts that have been enhanced with plant sterols and stanols---go for at least 2 g per day. Soy products, such as soy milk, soy beans and tofu, also contribute to a decrease in cholesterol.
Function
Soluble fiber scrubs out the intestines and leads to less absorption of dietary cholesterol---consume at least 10 g a day of soluble fiber (the average American consumes less than ½ of that recommendation) for optimum results. Antioxidants in nuts and olive oil help lower your LDL. Sterols and stanols extracted from plants inhibit the ability of the body to absorb cholesterol, and getting the recommended 2 g a day can result in a 10 percent decrease in LDL cholesterol. Consuming more fish pushes red meat out of your diet, thus lowering your intake of saturated fat. The presence of omega-3s in your fish meals also helps decrease the number of triglycerides (another form of fatty cholesterol) in the bloodstream.
Considerations
In addition to adding foods, cut out red meat, processed meats and fatty snacks. Increasing exercise also helps reduce cholesterol levels. Some people have genetic conditions that predispose them to high cholesterol. In these cases, medication may be the only solution.
