The conversations around the connection between diet and high cholesterol and the best eating habits for cholesterol maintenance seem to always shift, and it can be quite difficult to keep up with changing scientific discoveries. Research published over the last five years suggests that your diet is one of the most important factors in preventing conditions like heart disease and high cholesterol.
While people may have once held the belief that all that’s needed to keep high cholesterol at bay was lower cholesterol-heavy foods and abstaining from red meat, the discussion around monitoring high cholesterol has since evolved in a way to better underscore the importance of nutritious foods and our daily eating patterns as a whole. According to a study published by the American Heart Association, it’s more beneficial to focus on improving your eating patterns and the overall quality of your diet rather than just individual foods.
So when it comes to making important changes to your daily eating habits, what does the most recent research say? Read on to learn more, and for more healthy eating tips, check out 11 Low-Calorie Superfoods to Eat Every Day.
It’s not about the cholesterol in your food
A common misconception about having high cholesterol is that the main way to lower it is by consuming less cholesterol in your food. However, it’s a bit more complicated than that.6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e
Your body creates much more cholesterol on its own compared to the cholesterol you would consume through food, according to the Cleveland Clinic. So, eating foods high in cholesterol may affect your levels somewhat, but the impact is likely not as much as you might assume. Instead, researchers have concluded that it’s more about the foods and eating patterns that raise your body’s LDL cholesterol—aka “bad cholesterol”—and lower your HDL cholesterol, or the “good” kind.
The CDC and the American Heart Association agree that foods heavy in both saturated and trans fats can have a significant impact on your cholesterol levels, but the issue can be a bit more complex than that.
