Foods That Raise Your Cholesterol.

If you are concerned with your health, knowing what foods can raise your cholesterol is vital for eating a healthy diet.

While butter and fatty meat are familiar cholesterol-raisers, there are also some surprising and less well-known ones.

Curries, pate, chocolate, popcorn, milk shakes, macaroni cheese and even pina coladas are all potential cholesterol raising foods, while eggs and prawns are fine to eat as part of a balanced diet.

Understanding how minor changes to your diet can affect your cholesterol could have a dramatic effect on your well-being. Keeping your cholesterol levels in check reduces your risk of heart disease and stroke.

While cholesterol is almost always thought of as bad, there is in fact both good and bad cholesterol. Our bodies need good HDL-cholesterol, while the bad LDL-cholesterol has to be kept in check.

Make sure you understand the different types of fat, and cut down on the right type of fat.

Foods made with coconut oil, cocoa butter or palm oil will raise your LDL-cholesterol while rapeseed oil and olive oil won’t.

Saturated and trans fats found in foods such as butter, hard cheese, red meat and cream can raise the levels of LDL-cholesterol in the blood. This is also true of products made from saturated and trans fats including cakes, biscuits, pastries and processed meats.

Although our diets have changed and no longer include suet and lard, if you’re partial to an old fashioned pudding, do keep in mind these are bad for your cholesterol. Overall, UK diets still tend to be too high in saturated fat.

There are some foods which are high in dietary cholesterol such as eggs, prawns and kidneys. But this cholesterol affects your levels far less than saturated fats, and doesn't need to be avoided unless you've been advised by your doctor.

Unsaturated fats can actually help to reduce LDL-cholesterol levels and increase HDL-cholesterol. So include lots of oily fish such as salmon, mackerel and sardines, fruit, vegetables and soluble fibre (think lentils and beans) in your diet and turn to seeds and nuts as a healthier snack.

It’s not just the food but also the way that it is cooked that affects fat content. Switching to steaming, microwaving, poaching, grilling and boiling rather than roasting and frying can have a big impact on the levels of oil consumed.

Finally it’s not just about what you eat. Embracing daily exercise helps lower cholesterol levels.

Experts suggest that adding 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic activity such as swimming, cycling, running, walking and dancing every week can also improve cholesterol levels.

Re: Foods That Raise Your Cholesterol.

That's a very interesting post ..... thanks Roxy!

Re: Foods That Raise Your Cholesterol.

Interesting Roxy thank you.

Not sure why 'curries' are listed, some aren't surely .
I make a vegetable curry which I always think of as healthy.

Re: Foods That Raise Your Cholesterol.

Thank you Roxy, very interesting

Perhaps they refer more to the take-away type curries, which are sometimes swimming in oil?

Re: Foods That Raise Your Cholesterol.

never bought a take away curry in my life, no knowing what is in it

Thinking about it I guess some curries contain ghee ,I fry in olive or rapeseed oil so guess mine are healthy.

Re: Foods That Raise Your Cholesterol.

Lovely Meg.......all back to yours later then?

Re: Foods That Raise Your Cholesterol.

Thank you for the info but I must add that in many cases the food you eat is not the reason for a raised LDL level.
My doctor told me that only about 10% of Cholesterol comes from foodstuffs; the rest is produced by your body and some, like me, over-produced Cholesterol so my level is off by a bit.
The important thing to do first in my case was to reduce my LDL Cholesterol intake by as much as I could but also boost my HDL Cholesterol to get back to a balance.
That's what counts more than the LDL Cholesterol levels on their own; balancing it out with the HDL Cholesterol keeps it in check.
Trying to eradicate cholesterol completely will make you ill and statins are not suitable for everyone because, amongst other things they can cause more problems with liver damage and reducing you Co-Enzyme Q10 ratios drastically - that'll give you heart failure!! stevmk2

Re: Foods That Raise Your Cholesterol.

Interesting and informative, Roxy; I'm always reassured that prawns and eggs are now OK. I normally use olive oil, a good oil, but peanut oil when doing Chinese stir fries; anyone know how peanut oil stacks up health-wise?

Re: Foods That Raise Your Cholesterol.

Experts suggest that adding 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic activity such as swimming, cycling, running, walking and dancing every week can also improve cholesterol levels.

Me??? exercise??? Absolutely not!!! - not that I can anyway 'cos the metal implants in my hips and knees stop me from participating in high impact exercise (running and walking). Can't swim as I'll go rusty with all that metal inside me. Asthma and COPD means I don't have the lung capacity to 'bike' (Brighton is very hilly) and the pollution emanating from some vehicles is a major 'trigger' for an acute Asthmatic attack.

Re: Foods That Raise Your Cholesterol.

I read that taking the supplement Lethicin also help to reduce cholestol so am taking that. I have also taken to eating more fruit and veg and although not a lot of exercise, only about 15 minutes a day walking am hoping to reduce it from 5.6 without the help of statins which I cannot take. So I intend to have it taken again in Nov and see if I have managed to lower it.