What is the role of diet in high cholesterol?

Diet is one of the primary determinants of a healthy cholesterol level. Improving your diet may profoundly lower cholesterol levels. Although diet alone may not be sufficient to reach your individual target LDL cholesterol level, it is always an essential part of any treatment plan for high cholesterol.

We recommend a heart healthy Mediterranean eating plan. With this approach, dietary fat is limited to 25?30% of daily caloric intake and daily cholesterol intake to less than 200 mg/day.This eating plan stresses the importance of essential fatty acids, especially omega?3 fatty acids found in certain nuts and seeds (such as walnuts and flax seeds) and cold water northern fis (wild Alaskan salmon, cod, mackerel, sardines, and herring). This plan also emphasizes reducing the intake of saturated (bad) fats to less than 10% and eliminating harmful trans fats (found in heated fats, fried food, and solid fats such as margarines) while encouraging the use of coldpressed olive oil. Trans fats are particularly harmful as they lower "good cholesterol" or HDL while raising harmful LDL cholesterol. Whole grains such as brown rice and whole grain breads and a wide variety of antioxidant rich, green, yellow, red and orange vegetables (preferablyorganic) are the mainstay of this eating plan. Protein is mainly obtained from beans, poultry, and cold water northern fish. Soy products and raw almonds and walnuts have been shown to help reduce cholesterol. Simple sugars and fructose (sweetened drinks and foods rich in sugar or high fructose corn syrup) are replaced by fresh fruit such as berries, cherries and dark grapes (again, organic preferred). This general eating plan should of course be customized for your unique condition.

Diet determines nearly all of your cholesterol level. Diet is information for your liver, where you make cholesterol: diet tells your liver how much cholesterol to make, what it should look like, and what it should do. 

Amazingly, what you eat changes your cholesterol level. And your risk for fatal heart attack, if you have heart disease. 

It's well known that trans fats (the icing on a donut, the dry creamer in the break room, the deep fried onion rings at the diner) raise lousy (LDL) cholesterol, and lower HDL (healthy) cholesterol. 

It's less well known that all alcohol raises HDL, and that soy nuts lower LDL: if you have risk for alcoholism, or have liver disease, skip the booze; but if not, alcohol (beer, wine, spirits, cider) can be a healthy way to being to tell your genes what to do. And your cholesterol level and cardiologist will thank you.