Low-Cholesterol Diet Guidelines, Tips and Recipes

By Andrea Cohen
Published 12/23/2024
Dietitian Reviewed: Jane Schwartz, RDN, CLT
In This Article
Low-Cholesterol Diet Guidelines, Tips and Recipes

Lowering cholesterol helps improve heart health, and to keep your heart healthier, you may wonder if a low-cholesterol diet is right for you. However, there is often confusion about what foods to eat to lower cholesterol levels – and what foods to limit or avoid.

Research shows that it is not the cholesterol in foods, but rather the saturated and trans fat you eat that affect the body’s cholesterol levels most. To reduce cholesterol, a low-fat diet (low in saturated fat, not all fat) is often more effective than a low-cholesterol diet. Eating less added sugar and white flour also helps, since these simple carbohydrates may also negatively affect cholesterol and heart health.

Here’s some information on how cholesterol impacts your health, what foods affect cholesterol levels, and tips to lower cholesterol. We also explain the guidelines we use at Health eCooks to determine whether foods are heart-healthy based on cholesterol, fat, and other dietary factors. Plus, we share some delicious and easy recipes to lower cholesterol.

What Is Cholesterol?

Cholesterol is a fatty, waxy substance that is naturally made by your liver. It is needed for essential body functions such as building cells, producing certain hormones, and aiding digestion. The body actually makes all the cholesterol it needs so you don’t have to get cholesterol from food.

There are two types of cholesterol – high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL). HDL is known as “good” cholesterol and helps your body remove excess cholesterol from the blood. LDL is known as “bad” cholesterol because it can build up in your arteries, forming plaque that can slow or block blood flow.

How Does Cholesterol Affect Heart Health?

Sometimes, your body produces more LDL cholesterol than it needs, especially when you eat certain foods. If your LDL levels are high, the excess fatty substance in your bloodstream can build up in the arteries, forming plaque and increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease, heart attack and stroke. In contrast, if your HDL levels are high, that’s good for your heart because HDL helps remove the type of cholesterol that can clog your arteries.

What Is a Low Cholesterol Diet?

If you are trying to lower cholesterol, you may think you need to follow a low-cholesterol diet. But that doesn’t mean you should just limit how much cholesterol you eat. Research shows that dietary cholesterol doesn’t impact your body’s cholesterol levels much. What affects cholesterol levels more is the saturated and trans fats you eat. When you eat too many of these fats, your liver produces too much LDL cholesterol. This “bad” cholesterol clogs arteries and contributes to heart disease.

To follow a diet that lowers cholesterol, limit saturated fats to less than 10 percent of total calories each day, and avoid trans fats as much as possible. The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends limiting saturated fats even more, to as little as 5 to 6 percent of daily calories. Eating fewer foods high in cholesterol is heart-friendly because most high-cholesterol foods, such as red meat, cheese, and butter, also are high in saturated fat. Studies also show that too much added sugar may increase cholesterol levels and heart disease risk so try to keep added sugar intake to a minimum. Here are 12 heart healthy smoothies to make that use the natural sugars in fruit as a sweetener.

What Are the Benefits of Low Cholesterol Diets?

When your diet is low in saturated fat, limits or avoids trans fat, and keeps the amount of added sugars you eat in check, it can help you better control your body’s cholesterol levels. Lower cholesterol helps improve heart health. It makes it less likely that plaque will form in your arteries, which can block blood flow, potentially causing a heart attack or stroke. In addition to improving heart health, low-cholesterol diets may also contribute to improved brain health, weight control, circulation and blood sugar management.

What Are Other Ways to Keep My Heart Healthy?

Along with eating less saturated and trans fat, you may want to follow a low-sodium diet to help better manage your blood pressure. Keeping your weight in check is also good for your heart and here are some low-calorie diet guidelines to consider when meal planning. Some people find that following a high-protein diet helps with weight control but choose protein sources carefully if you are trying to lower cholesterol since most saturated fat and dietary cholesterol comes from animal-based proteins. Eating fewer processed and simple carbohydrates, such as those from added sugar and white flour, may also improve heart health (and overall health) – here are some low-carb diet guidelines that may help.

Cholesterol Guidelines for Adults

Since dietary cholesterol has little impact on blood cholesterol levels, there are no exact guidelines about how much cholesterol to eat daily. Health experts used to recommend having no more than 300 milligrams of dietary cholesterol a day. The 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans now only suggest that adults eat as little dietary cholesterol as possible, without putting a specific limit on how much to eat. One reason it’s recommended that you not eat too much cholesterol is that many foods high in cholesterol are also high in saturated fat, and limiting saturated fat helps keep blood cholesterol levels in a healthier range.

If you are looking for delicious and healthy low-cholesterol meals, Health eCooks has a wide selection of heart healthy recipes that are low in saturated fat, which aids in cholesterol management. Our team of dietitians also calculates the amount of dietary cholesterol in each recipe, in case you want to track your cholesterol intake. Additionally, we have low sodium recipes and Mediterranean Diet recipes that are good for your heart. And if you’re watching your waistline, be sure to try some of our delicious low calorie recipes, too!

What Are the Best Low Cholesterol Foods?

The best foods to eat to lower cholesterol are low in dietary cholesterol and saturated fat. They also contain fiber, which may help reduce cholesterol levels. Good choices include:

  • Vegetables
  • Fruit
  • Whole grains
  • Legumes
  • Nuts and seeds

What Are the Worst Cholesterol Foods?

Animal-based foods are the only foods that contain dietary cholesterol. Many are also high in saturated fat, which has a much bigger impact on your body's cholesterol levels than how much cholesterol the food contains. Foods that are high in dietary cholesterol and saturated fat include:

  • Red meat – such as beef, pork, and lamb
  • Processed meats – such as bacon, sausage, hot dogs, and salami
  • Full-fat dairy – such as cheese, cream, butter, and whole milk

Foods that are high in saturated fat but don't contain much or any dietary cholesterol may also increase the body's cholesterol levels, such as:

  • Tropical oils (like palm and coconut oil)
  • Fried foods
  • Baked goods

Some animal-based foods that are high in cholesterol are low in saturated fat so they can still be part of a heart-healthy diet, including:

  • Eggs
  • Shrimp

How Can I Lower My Cholesterol?

There are several health risks of high cholesterol levels, including an increased risk of heart disease, heart attack and stroke. Because high cholesterol can lead to a build-up of plaque on artery walls, blood flow can also be blocked or slowed to other areas of your body, such as your legs.

Here are 5 cholesterol reduction tips to help keep you healthier:

  1. Eat less unhealthy fat – Limit your intake of foods high in saturated fat, such as red meat, butter, cheese and fried foods. Also limit or avoid trans fat, such as those found in commercially prepared baked goods.
  2. Eat more healthy fat – Some kinds of fat are good for heart health, including monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat. Good sources of healthy fat include cold water fish (like salmon, trout, tuna, and mackerel), avocados, olives, nuts, and seeds.
  3. Eat less added sugars and white flour – Foods like bread, rolls, buns, bagels, donuts, cookies, and pastries, as well as other foods high in added sugar or white flour, can raise triglycerides, which are a type of fat in the blood. Like high LDL cholesterol, this increases heart disease risk.
  4. Eat more plant foods – Fiber, especially soluble fiber, reduces your body’s ability to absorb cholesterol. Good sources include whole grains like oats, quinoa, and barley, as well as vegetables, fruits, and legumes. Aim to fill half your plate with a variety of colorful vegetables.
  5. Get more exercise – Increasing the amount of physical activity you do may help lower cholesterol levels and keep your heart healthy.

Low-Cholesterol Recipes

Want to make low-cholesterol dishes that taste great? Try some of these low-cholesterol recipes for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, or as side dishes, snacks or desserts. They’re delicious and heart-healthy!

Cholesterol FAQs

  • The main reason to follow a low-cholesterol diet is to lower blood cholesterol levels, most notably your LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. To do this, health experts recommend limiting the amount of saturated fat in your diet and avoiding or strictly limiting trans fats. Reducing the amount of dietary cholesterol alone has not been shown to have a big impact on your body’s cholesterol levels.

  • The biggest health risks of high cholesterol levels are that it increases your risk of heart disease, heart attack, and stroke due to the potential build-up of plaque in artery walls that may reduce blood flow to the heart and brain. Although high dietary cholesterol levels may not have much of an impact on your body’s cholesterol levels, many foods with high cholesterol are also high in saturated fat, which can raise cholesterol levels. That’s why some doctors recommend eating fewer high-cholesterol foods.

  • Total cholesterol levels less than 200 mg/dL are considered normal so anything under that level (the lower the better) is good. Very low cholesterol levels are less than 120 mg/dL, but levels rarely get this low. Cholesterol levels between 200 -239 mg/dL are mildly elevated. Anything above 240 mg/dL is high.

  • There is no specific range for foods to be considered low cholesterol. If you are watching dietary cholesterol levels, it may be recommended that you keep levels below 200mg – 300 mg per day. If you are limiting saturated fat to reduce cholesterol levels, it is recommended that you keep saturated fat intake to less than 10 percent or less of total calories daily.

  • Some of the best low-cholesterol foods are vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds.

  • Some foods that are high in cholesterol and/or saturated fat include red and processed meats (like beef, pork, lamb, sausage, and bacon), full-fat dairy (like cheese, butter, and cream), tropical oils (like palm and coconut oil), fried foods, baked goods, eggs and shrimp.

  • The best way to lower cholesterol levels is to eat less saturated fat, eliminate trans fat, and eat more unsaturated fats, such as those from cold water fish (like salmon, trout, tuna, and mackerel), avocados, olives, nuts, and seeds. Lowering dietary cholesterol alone is not the best way to lower blood cholesterol numbers.

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