Choosing foods that are low in saturated fats, trans fats, and cholesterol can lower your cholesterol. You might think that cholesterol in food is the major contributor to elevated blood cholesterol, but that is not the case. The biggest culprits are saturated fats and trans fats. The ?rst step toward lowering your cholesterol through diet is to understand the different types of fats in foods and their impact on blood cholesterol.

Fats That Raise Cholesterol

Two types of fats are known to raise your cholesterol: saturated fats and trans fats. If you have high cholesterol, current guidelines recommend that you limit your intake of saturated and trans fats to total no more than 7 percent of the total calories you consume in one day. Saturated fats, which your body uses to make bad LDL cholesterol, mostly come from animal products. Beef, veal, lamb, pork, and whole-milk dairy products including butter, cream, milk, and cheeses are all high in sat- urated fat. Plant sources of saturated fats include tropical oils (coconut, palm, and palm kernel oils) and cocoa butter. These foods are also high in dietary cholesterol. However, the fat in cocoa butter appears to be more neutral and less likely to raise LDL levels.
Trans fat or trans fatty acid is an unsaturated fat, but it can also raise your LDL levels and lower your HDL levels. Trans fats are made when hydrogen is added to vegetable oils to make them solid and longer last- ing. Trans fats are widely used in commercial baking (crackers, cookies, and cakes) and in restaurants, particularly for frying. They also occur naturally in some foods such as meat and whole milk. Recently the Food and Drug Administration mandated that the amount of trans fatty acids in any prepared food product be spelled out on the food label (see sam- ple label on page 94). Also recently, the American Heart Association recommended that people limit their consumption of trans fatty acids to no more than 1 percent of their total calories each day. However, a label may state “0 g trans fat” but still contain up to 0.5 g of trans fats per serving, so to be con?dent you are controlling the amount of trans fats, make sure the label says the product contains no hydrogenated oil or “partially hydrogenated oil.” The New York City Department of Health recently banned the use of trans fats in restaurants in the city.

Fats That Lower Cholesterol

Some fats may actually lower your cholesterol. Both polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats alike have qualities that help lower your cho- lesterol. They are both good substitutes for saturated or trans fats, but you still need to moderate your intake of fats in order to keep down your total calorie intake. To lower your cholesterol, your intake of all fats combined should be 25 to 35 percent of your total calorie intake per day.
Monounsaturated fats are found in oils and fruits, such as olive oil and avocadoes. In your body, these fats help your body’s cells resist absorption of fat and cholesterol and slow the buildup of plaque in your arteries. Polyunsaturated fats are found in many nuts and seeds, corn, and soybeans and their oils. It is important to recognize that canola oil has the lowest content of saturated fat among the various pressed oils that are available.
Foods rich in omega-3 polyunsaturated fats may be especially health- ful, reducing your risk of coronary artery disease, high triglycerides, blood clotting, abnormal heart rhythms, and sudden death. The American Heart Association recommends that you eat at least two servings of baked or grilled ?sh, preferably fatty ?sh, each week. Omega-3 fats or fatty acids are found in ?sh, especially fatty ?sh such as sardines, mackerel, lake trout, salmon, and albacore tuna. However, concerns about the high levels of mercury in mackerel, sword?sh, and tuna have led experts to recommend that adults limit themselves to eating no more than one serving of these ?sh per week. A fetus may be especially vulnerable to mercury, so doctors often recommend that pregnant women limit their consumption of mercury-containing ?sh even more. As an alternative to ?sh, several plant sources are rich in omega-3 fats, including ?axseed and ?axseed oil, soy- bean oil, and walnuts. Soy, though high in total fat, is very low in saturated fat and might have a bene?cial effect on lipids. Soy may be consumed in various forms including tofu, soy milk, and edamame beans.

Dietary Cholesterol

Cholesterol is found exclusively in animal-based products. Red meat, whole-milk dairy products, egg yolks, and organ meats are especially high in cholesterol. To lower cholesterol, current guidelines recom- mend that you limit your cholesterol intake to less than 300 milligrams per day, on average. Keep in mind that plant-based foods— fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, and seeds—don’t raise your cholesterol level, so you can eat more of them.

Fiber

Eaten as part of a diet low in fat and saturated fats, ?ber can help lower your cholesterol. A high-?ber diet is linked to lower death rates from coronary artery disease and heart attack.

Soluble ?ber (a type of ?ber that is partially broken down in your intestine) effectively lowers cholesterol about 5 percent by chemically binding to cholesterol-based substances to remove them from the bloodstream. Adding more ?ber to your diet is one means of enhancing the effects of your overall cholesterol-lowering diet. Soluble ?ber is found in oatmeal and oat bran, beans, peas, barley, citrus fruits, straw- berries, and apples. By contrast, the insoluble ?ber found in wheat products has no cholesterol-lowering effects.

Plant Stanols and Sterols

Your doctor may recommend that you start using soft margarines con- taining plant stanols and sterols. These substances are the plant equiva- lent of cholesterol, and they may significantly reduce your body’s absorption of dietary cholesterol from other sources. Margarines con- taining these substances are available at most grocery stores. Liquid mar- garine, spray margarine, or soft margarine in tubs are recommended over hardened margarines in sticks, because those contain hydrogenated fat or trans fat.

Alcohol and Cholesterol

You may have read about some studies suggesting that moderate use of alcohol may actually raise your good HDL cholesterol. However, the bene?ts are not clear enough to recommend that you start drinking alcohol if you don’t drink now. People who drink in moderation—one drink a day for women, two drinks a day for men, on average—have a lower risk of heart disease than nondrinkers. But drinking in higher amounts is dangerous to your cardiovascular health in many ways, con- tributing to your risk of developing high blood pressure, obesity, and stroke. Also, for women, more than one alcoholic drink per day increases the chances of breast cancer.