You can also add vegetables to casseroles, sauces, and burgers. For example, a review of 31 studies found that green tea helps lower LDL and total cholesterol levels. The primary compound in green tea responsible for these effects is catechins. These help lower inflammation, oxidation, and carcinogen levels.

Black tea and white tea have similar properties and health effects on cholesterol. Dark leafy greens, such as kale , spinach , and Swiss chard contain lutein and other carotenoids, which are linked to a lower risk of heart disease.

Dark leafy greens may also help lower cholesterol levels. The authors of a study in rats suggest that this is done because they bind to bile acids and help your body excrete more cholesterol. A study in guinea pigs also found that lutein lowers levels of oxidized LDL cholesterol and could help prevent cholesterol from binding to artery walls.

Extra virgin olive oil is one of the most important foods in the heart-healthy Mediterranean diet. A review compared the effects of olive oil with other plant-based oils on cholesterol levels.

The researchers found that olive oil had a bigger impact on increasing HDL cholesterol. Similarly, a review found that consuming 20 grams per day of olive oil helped increase HDL cholesterol.

However, overall, the authors concluded that olive oil had minimal impacts on LDL, triglycerides, and total cholesterol. More research is needed to fully support olive oil as a cholesterol-friendly food.

However, some foods that may help lower your LDL cholesterol include dark leafy greens, legumes and beans, and green tea. Some ways to lower your cholesterol include:. Some foods to avoid eating if you have high cholesterol include:. High cholesterol levels are a major risk factor for heart disease.

However, you may lower this risk by incorporating certain foods into your diet. Upping your intake of these foods will put you on the path to a balanced diet and keep your heart healthy.

Our experts continually monitor the health and wellness space, and we update our articles when new information becomes available.

While they're not typically able to prescribe, nutritionists can still benefits your overall health. Let's look at benefits, limitations, and more.

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Medically reviewed by Imashi Fernando, MS, RDN, CDCES — By Kerri-Ann Jennings, MS, RD — Updated on December 19, Legumes Avocados Nuts Fatty fish Whole grains Fruits and berries Dark chocolate Garlic Soy foods Vegetables Tea Leafy greens Olive oil FAQ Takeaway Some foods may help lower your cholesterol.

Types of cholesterol Cholesterol is a waxy substance that is carried through your body by lipoproteins. These may increase your chance of stroke and heart disease. Over time, these modifications can really pay off. This includes raising good HDL cholesterol, managing blood pressure levels and many other heart-healthy benefits.

Do I need to start running every day? Do I need to join a gym or buy a bunch of home fitness equipment? If you want to, go ahead! Ideally, you want to aim for at least 2. You can break that up however you like.

You might focus on doing something every day, or you could dedicate yourself to just a few days per week. The key is to just get started. For example, do you usually take the elevator?

Take the stairs instead. Do you walk your dog every day? Go a little farther than usual or walk at a faster pace. Need to go shopping? Park farther away than you normally do.

Catching up on your favorite TV series? Also look for chances to bring motion into your daily life, such as walking while you talk on the phone.

It also helps reduce blood pressure and builds your overall physical, mental and emotional well-being. Even if you just go a little farther or a little faster than you usually do, that extra activity will be a big step in the right direction for your health.

Your primary care doctor is a helpful partner along your journey. Your doctor can work with you to create an action plan just for you — one that combines diet, exercise and other lifestyle changes to help you lower and manage your cholesterol. For example, losing weight and quitting smoking can be big helpers for lowering cholesterol.

Quitting smoking can raise your good HDL cholesterol levels, and losing weight can lower your bad LDL cholesterol levels significantly. Fortunately, your primary care doctor can be a great resource to help you get started and find practical ways to stick with it.

Plus, help with quitting smoking and losing weight may already be covered if you have health insurance. Whether you want to quit smoking, lose weight or just learn more about how your personal health would benefit from lower cholesterol levels, regular check-ins with your doctor are key.

They can also perform cholesterol tests — the only way to actually measure cholesterol — to check your progress and help you make adjustments based on the results. It gives you 1 to 2 grams of soluble fiber. Add a banana or some strawberries for another half-gram. Current nutrition guidelines recommend getting 20 to 35 grams of fiber a day, with at least 5 to 10 grams coming from soluble fiber.

The average American gets about half that amount. Barley and other whole grains. Like oats and oat bran, barley and other whole grains can help lower the risk of heart disease, mainly via the soluble fiber they deliver.

Beans are especially rich in soluble fiber. They also take a while for the body to digest, meaning you feel full for longer after a meal. That's one reason beans are a useful food for folks trying to lose weight.

With so many choices — from navy and kidney beans to lentils, garbanzos, black-eyed peas, and beyond — and so many ways to prepare them, beans are a very versatile food. Eggplant and okra. These two low-calorie vegetables are good sources of soluble fiber. A bushel of studies shows that eating almonds, walnuts, peanuts, and other nuts is good for the heart.

Nuts have additional nutrients that protect the heart in other ways. Vegetable oils. Using liquid vegetable oils such as canola, sunflower, safflower, and others in place of butter, lard, or shortening when cooking or at the table helps lower LDL.

Apples, grapes, strawberries, citrus fruits.

Look for foods fortified with plant sterols such as mayonnaise, margarine and salad dressing. Dietary fats and oils provide our bodies with energy, provide essential fats and help absorb fat soluble vitamins such as A, D, E and K. Both the quality and amount of fat you eat matters. It is important to not focus on just one nutrient — it is your overall diet that will make the biggest difference to your health.

Saturated fat intake should not be an issue if you are eating a healthy, balanced diet, few or no highly-processed foods and appropriate portion sizes. Sometimes diet and exercise are not enough to lower your blood cholesterol levels. Several drugs are available to lower your blood cholesterol.

Your doctor may prescribe medications to including statins and other cholesterol lowering medication. How to manage your cholesterol PDF. Find health eating tips here.

Learn more about other risk factors for heart disease. Donate now. Jump to What is blood cholesterol? Diagnosis Understand your test results Prevention and management Nutrition labelling Plant sterols Dietary fats Medication to lower cholesterol Related information.

What is blood cholesterol? Cholesterol is naturally made by your body but is increased through our diet. Diagnosis Understand your risk The only way to know if you have high cholesterol levels is to have a simple blood test.

Understand your test results Your test results will include: HDL cholesterol good cholesterol - good to have a high number LDL cholesterol bad cholesterol - good to have a low number Non HDL cholesterol total cholesterol — HDL cholesterol - good to have a low number Triglycerides - high reading may be tracked over time Your doctor will review your test results along with your risk factors, medical history and present health.

Familial hypercholesterolemia or inherited high cholesterol People with familial or inherited high cholesterol levels have a much higher risk of heart disease early in life. Heit thinks immune system could hold key to preventing heart attacks.

Read more. Prevention and management Making some lifestyle changes is a positive way to control your blood cholesterol levels. Eat a healthy balanced diet. Choose a variety of whole and minimally processed foods at every meal.

This means foods that are either not packaged or have few ingredients. Fill half your plate with vegetables and fruit at every meal.

Choose vegetables and fruit for snacks. Select fresh, frozen or canned vegetables and fruit. You want them to be plain, without sauce, sugar or salt added. Choose whole grains. Look for whole grain breads, barley, oats including oatmeal , quinoa, brown rice, bulgur, farro, etc.

Mix up the centre of your plate. Fish is low in saturated fats, and many kinds contain omega-3 fatty acids, which benefit your heart health and can boost your good HDL cholesterol levels.

Here are some examples of types of fish you can try to include in your diet:. All that said, steak and hamburger can be hard to resist. You just need to eat them in moderation.

You probably know fiber as something that can help you with your digestive health. But if you thought fiber was only for digestion, think again: It can also help build your cardiovascular health. A low-cholesterol food list is rich in soluble fiber fiber that can dissolve into water.

Soluble fiber grabs cholesterol in your gut — before it gets into your bloodstream — and helps lower bad LDL cholesterol levels. Try oatmeal and whole grain toast for breakfast, curried lentils for lunch, or turkey chili with kidney beans for dinner. Generally, the more processed a grain or bean, the less likely it is to have healthy benefits and nutritional value.

Whenever you can, try to stock up on fresh ingredients. But common snack foods like chips, microwavable popcorn, cookies, pastries or crackers are high in trans and saturated fats. On the other hand, snacking on fruits, vegetables and nuts not only helps you avoid bad fats, but also helps you get good fats and fiber.

Raw nuts are high in unsaturated fats — which are the best kind of fats. Nuts are great for a heart-healthy diet because they raise your good HDL cholesterol levels and lower your bad LDL cholesterol levels.

Other examples of foods that are high in unsaturated fat include avocados and olives. Nuts — along with many fruits and veggies — can also be a great source of soluble fiber.

Adding as many of these foods as you can to your diet can be a double-dose of cholesterol-reducing impact. As with meats and whole grains, remember that more processing means less benefit.

When it comes to dairy, this is a big area where picking a healthier alternative can be an easy win. For items like cheese, milk, cream and yogurt, use low-fat dairy products instead of the regular versions.

Who knows? It could become your next craving. Making these changes is helpful because full-fat dairy products contain saturated fat as well as cholesterol. Just as you can change what you buy in the grocery store, you can also choose healthier ways to make your food that help lower your cholesterol naturally.

For example:. When you do need to add fat for cooking, baking or pan frying, use healthy oils instead of solid fats, like butter, margarine, shortening and lard.

Foods fortified with sterols and stanols. Sterols and stanols extracted from plants gum up the body's ability to absorb cholesterol from food. Companies are adding them to foods ranging from margarine and granola bars to orange juice and chocolate.

They're also available as supplements. Eating soybeans and foods made from them, like tofu and soy milk, was once touted as a powerful way to lower cholesterol. Fatty fish. Eating fish two or three times a week can lower LDL in two ways: by replacing meat, which has LDL-boosting saturated fats, and by delivering LDL-lowering omega-3 fats.

Omega-3s reduce triglycerides in the bloodstream and also protect the heart by helping prevent the onset of abnormal heart rhythms. Fiber supplements. Supplements offer the least appealing way to get soluble fiber. Two teaspoons a day of psyllium, which is found in Metamucil and other bulk-forming laxatives, provide about 4 grams of soluble fiber.

When it comes to investing money, experts recommend creating a portfolio of diverse investments instead of putting all your eggs in one basket. The same holds true for eating your way to lower cholesterol.

Adding several foods to lower cholesterol in different ways should work better than focusing on one or two. A largely vegetarian "dietary portfolio of cholesterol-lowering foods" substantially lowers LDL, triglycerides, and blood pressure.

The key dietary components are plenty of fruits and vegetables, whole grains instead of highly refined ones, and protein mostly from plants.

Add margarine enriched with plant sterols; oats, barley, psyllium, okra, and eggplant, all rich in soluble fiber; soy protein; and whole almonds.