What does fact checked mean?
At Healthfully, we strive to deliver objective content that is accurate and up-to-date. Our team periodically reviews articles in order to ensure content quality. The sources cited below consist of evidence from peer-reviewed journals, prominent medical organizations, academic associations, and government data.
- National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute: What Is Cholesterol?
- National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute: What Is Cholesterol?
- American Heart Association: About Cholesterol
- American Heart Association: How Can I Lower High Cholesterol
- Harvard Medical School: 11 Foods That Lower Cholesterol
- American Heart Association: Know Your Fats
- National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute: In Brief: Your Guide to Lowering Your Blood Pressure With DASH
- National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute: In Brief: Your Guide to Lowering Your Blood Pressure With DASH
The information contained on this site is for informational purposes only, and should not be used as a substitute for the advice of a professional health care provider. Please check with the appropriate physician regarding health questions and concerns. Although we strive to deliver accurate and up-to-date information, no guarantee to that effect is made.
A Low-Cholesterol Diet Plan Menu
You know you need to eat more fruits, vegetables and whole grains to improve your cholesterol numbers, but a diet to lower cholesterol is filled with more than fiber and rabbit food. It's a diet rich in healthy fats such as olive oil and walnuts and in proteins like salmon. Knowing all the delicious and healthy food options can help make low-cholesterol meal planning and eating enjoyable. Consult your doctor or dietitian about your diet for cholesterol.
Overview of Cholesterol and Triglycerides
Cholesterol is not all bad; you need it to help make hormones, vitamin D and substances that aid in the digestion of fats. But your body already makes enough to do these jobs. There's also cholesterol in food, but it's the saturated and trans fats in the food you eat that cause your body to make too much cholesterol. The publication "Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010" suggests you limit your intake of dietary cholesterol to under 300 milligrams a day. Additionally, the American Heart Association suggests you keep saturated fat intake to less than 5 percent to 6 percent of total calories and reduce percent of calories from trans fats 25.
High-density lipoprotein takes cholesterol to your liver, where it is processed and eliminated from your body.
Fat travels in your bloodstream via triglycerides, which also affect cholesterol levels. In your blood and liver, triglycerides combine with proteins to make cholesterol. Keeping your triglyceride numbers down may also benefit your cholesterol numbers.
- Cholesterol is not all bad; you need it to help make hormones, vitamin D and substances that aid in the digestion of fats.
What to Eat
Do Nuts Have Cholesterol?
Learn More
A daily diet to lower your cholesterol should include four to five servings of fruits and vegetables; six to eight servings of grains, with at least half of them whole grains; two to three servings of low-fat or fat-free milk or milk alternative; and 5 to 6 ounces of lean meat or poultry -- or plant protein, such as soy -- according to the American Heart Association 25. Additionally, have two to three servings of fatty fish such as trout or salmon two to three days a week and 1/2 ounce of seeds or 1/2 cup of legumes four to five days a week.
Certain foods contain nutrients that help lower blood cholesterol by preventing your body from absorbing or helping to eliminate it from your body 4. Trading in your butter for vegetable oils such as olive or sunflower oil also helps improve cholesterol. Eating 2 ounces of almonds, walnuts or peanuts a day may reduce your LDL cholesterol by 5 percent, according to the Harvard Medical School 4.
Foods to Limit
In order for your cholesterol-lowering meal plan to work, you need to limit your intake of foods high in saturated and trans fat. This includes heavy cream, full-fat dairy foods, butter, stick margarine, shortening, lard, high-fat processed meats such as:
- liver
- baked goods made with saturated or trans fats
- fried foods
A Typical Low-Cholesterol Day
Good Cholesterol in Hard-Boiled Eggs
Learn More
You might start your day off with a bowl of oatmeal with raisins and a cup of fat-free milk or milk alternative such as soy or almond milk. Fill a whole-wheat tortilla with pureed black beans and sauteed pepper and onions and serve with salsa, quinoa and roasted carrots for dinner. For omnivores, replace the pureed black beans with sliced chicken breast. A 2-ounce serving of almonds with a fresh orange makes a healthy snack.
- You might start your day off with a bowl of oatmeal with raisins and a cup of fat-free milk or milk alternative such as soy or almond milk.
Related Articles
References
- National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute: What Is Cholesterol?
- American Heart Association: About Cholesterol
- Columbia University Medical Center: Triglycerides
- Harvard Medical School: 11 Foods That Lower Cholesterol
- American Heart Association: Know Your Fats
- U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Depapartment of Health and Human Services: Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010
- National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute: In Brief: Your Guide to Lowering Your Blood Pressure With DASH
- Control Your Cholesterol. American Heart Association. April 30, 2017
- Goldstein JL, Brown MS. A Century of Cholesterol and Coronaries: From Plaques to Genes to Statins. Cell. 2015;161(1):161-172. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2015.01.036
- Fernandez M. Rethinking dietary cholesterol. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2012;15(2):117-121. doi:10.1097/mco.0b013e32834d2259
- Blesso CN, Andersen CJ, Barona J, Volek JS, Fernandez ML. Whole egg consumption improves lipoprotein profiles and insulin sensitivity to a greater extent than yolk-free egg substitute in individuals with metabolic syndrome. Metab Clin Exp. 2013;62(3):400-10. doi:10.1016/j.metabol.2012.08.014
- Jones PJH. Dietary cholesterol and the risk of cardiovascular disease in patients: a review of the Harvard Egg Study and other data. International journal of clinical practice Supplement. 2009;(163):1-8, 28-36. doi:10.1111/j.1742-1241.2009.02136.x
- Sabaté J, Oda K, Ros E. Nut Consumption and Blood Lipid Levels: A Pooled Analysis of 25 Intervention Trials. Arch Intern Med. 2010;170(9):821–827. doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2010.79
- Beynen AC, Katan MB, Van zutphen LF. Hypo- and hyperresponders: individual differences in the response of serum cholesterol concentration to changes in diet. Adv Lipid Res. 1987;22:115-71. doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-024922-0.50008-4
- Cholesterol Management Guide for Healthcare Providers. American Heart Association. 2018
- Nathalie Bergeron, Sally Chiu, Paul T Williams, Sarah M King, Ronald M Krauss, Effects of red meat, white meat, and nonmeat protein sources on atherogenic lipoprotein measures in the context of low compared with high saturated fat intake: a randomized controlled trial, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Volume 110, Issue 1, July 2019, Pages 24–33, doi:10.1093/ajcn/nqz035
- Ramsden CE, Zamora D, Majchrzak-Hong S, et al. Re-evaluation of the traditional diet-heart hypothesis: analysis of recovered data from Minnesota Coronary Experiment (1968-73). BMJ. April 2016:i1246. doi:10.1136/bmj.i1246
- Xin-Xin Zheng, Yan-Lu Xu, Shao-Hua Li, Xu-Xia Liu, Rutai Hui, Xiao-Hong Huang, Green tea intake lowers fasting serum total and LDL cholesterol in adults: a meta-analysis of 14 randomized controlled trials, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Volume 94, Issue 2, August 2011, Pages 601–610, doi:10.3945/ajcn.110.010926
- Chen HJ, Chuang SY, Chang HY, Pan WH. Energy intake at different times of the day: Its association with elevated total and LDL cholesterol levels. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2019;29(4):390-397. doi:10.1016/j.numecd.2019.01.003
- Yashin A, Yashin Y, Xia X, Nemzer B. Antioxidant Activity of Spices and Their Impact on Human Health: A Review. Antioxidants (Basel). 2017;6(3):70. Published 2017 Sep 15. doi:10.3390/antiox6030070
- Pedersen TR. The Success Story of LDL Cholesterol Lowering. Circ Res. 2016;118(4):721-31.doi:https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.115.306297
- Di Stasi SL, MacLeod TD, Winters JD, Binder-Macleod SA. Effects of statins on skeletal muscle: a perspective for physical therapists. Phys Ther. 2010;90(10):1530–1542. doi:10.2522/ptj.20090251
- Fernandez M. Rethinking dietary cholesterol. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2012;15(2):117-121. doi:10.1097/mco.0b013e32834d2259
- Goldstein JL, Brown MS. A Century of Cholesterol and Coronaries: From Plaques to Genes to Statins. Cell. 2015;161(1):161-172. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2015.01.036
- Harvard School of Public Health. Cholesterol. The Nutrition Source. Published May 22, 2019.
- Ha V, Sievenpiper JL, de Souza RJ, et al. Effect of dietary pulse intake on established therapeutic lipid targets for cardiovascular risk reduction: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Canadian Medical Association Journal. 2014;186(8):E252-E262. doi:10.1503/cmaj.131727
- Jones P, Pappu A, Hatcher L, Li Z, Illingworth D, Connor W. Dietary Cholesterol Feeding Suppresses Human Cholesterol Synthesis Measured by Deuterium Incorporation and Urinary Mevalonic Acid Levels. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 1996;16(10):1222-1228. doi:10.1161/01.atv.16.10.1222
- Magriplis E, Sialvera TE, Papadopoulou A, et al. Effectiveness and easiness of adherence to behavioural guidelines for diet and lifestyle changes for cholesterol-lowering: the Increasing Adherence of Consumers to Diet & Lifestyle Changes to Lower (LDL) Cholesterol (ACT) randomised controlled trial. J Hum Nutr Diet. 2019;32(5):607-618. doi:10.1111/jhn.12667
- Maugeri A, Kunzova S, Medina-Inojosa JR, et al. Association between eating time interval and frequency with ideal cardiovascular health: Results from a random sample Czech urban population. Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases. 2018;28(8):847-855. doi:10.1016/j.numecd.2018.04.002
- Olsson AG, Angelin B, Assmann G, et al. Can LDL cholesterol be too low? Possible risks of extremely low levels. Journal of Internal Medicine. 2017;281(6):534-553. doi:10.1111/joim.12614
- Rosenthal RL. Effectiveness of altering serum cholesterol levels without drugs. Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent). 2000;13(4):351–355. doi:10.1080/08998280.2000.11927704
- Swift D, Johannsen N, Lavie C, Earnest C, Church T. The Role of Exercise and Physical Activity in Weight Loss and Maintenance. Prog Cardiovasc Dis. 2014;56(4):441-447. doi:10.1016/j.pcad.2013.09.012
Writer Bio
Jill Corleone is a registered dietitian and health coach who has been writing and lecturing on diet and health for more than 15 years. Her work has been featured on the Huffington Post, Diabetes Self-Management and in the book "Noninvasive Mechanical Ventilation," edited by John R. Bach, M.D. Corleone holds a Bachelor of Science in nutrition.