Foods and Diets that Lower Cholesterol

A diet that contains food that is good for you in multiple ways can help lower your cholesterol. Here's what you should know about cholesterol-lowering foods.

Changing your diet for the better is good for your overall health.

The foods that will help you lower your cholesterol levels won’t surprise you. They are the go-to foods for anyone who wants to avoid illness as they age and stay strong when they’re young.

You may have heard that avoiding saturated fat — for example, in steak or cheese — helps manage your cholesterol.

But you can do so much more.

As early as 2005, research at Stanford University concluded that eating vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and beans (a plant-based diet) has twice the cholesterol-lowering power of avoiding saturated fats.

Since then, meta-analyses of studies comparing such diets to other strategies support the plant-based approach, which generally lowers low-density lipoprotein (LDL), also sometimes called “bad cholesterol,” from 15 to 30 percent.

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Plant-based diets aren’t always healthy

You might be pleased with yourself for cutting out your favorite BLT lunch. But what if you opt for a bagel with a tofu-based spread and strawberry jam every day? Or maybe some days you have a big fruit juice smoothie with peanut butter?

Those choices aren’t so great. You’d be better off with whole grain rye bread, rather than the bagel, and a salad instead of a smoothie.

It’s still important to stay away from foods that aren’t great for anyone. In a study of nearly 3,700 middle-aged adults with chronic diseases, researchers found that people do best when they stick most closely to a plant-based diet and avoid refined grains, potatoes, sweetened beverages, fruit juices, and desserts.

Should you eat fish?

There is some debate about whether you should eat only plants. Seafood seems to have extra benefits beyond a substitute protein for red meat.

As the American Heart Association (AHA) notes, seafood, especially deep-water fish like salmon, is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which may help protect you against heart disease and stroke. The AHA recommends eating at least two servings of fish a week.

Perhaps the best-studied diet for heart health is the Mediterranean Diet, based on the observation that people who live near the Mediterranean Sea historically have had lower levels of cardiovascular disease than other groups. Most of their meals are entirely plant-based, but they regularly eat fish.

The Spanish and Portuguese, for example have a rich tradition of preserved fishes featured in small plates called tapas. Think of bouillabaisse, the delicious fish soup from the Mediterranean port city of Marseille, France.

There’s no debate about fiber

Everyone should eat high-fiber foods. For example, the cardiologist Elizabeth Klodas, MD, author of “Slay the Giant: The Power of Prevention in Defeating Heart Disease,” recommends oatmeal, oat bran, and broccoli to improve cholesterol numbers.

Soluble fiber cuts the absorption of dietary cholesterol in your digestive system. It also helps you avoid insulin spikes that aggravate cholesterol numbers. But most Americans are short on fiber.

Other high-fiber foods include black beans, lima beans, Brussels sprouts, avocados, sweet potatoes, pears, figs, carrots, and sunflower seeds.  

Nuts — including almonds, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, walnuts, and pistachios —also fight cholesterol. The classic basil and pignoli nut pesto is just one kind of pesto. You can make pesto with pistachios and mint or walnuts and parsley, for example.

Variety is always important in a healthful diet. Rather than eating almonds every day as a snack, try to mix up your nuts and have carrot sticks, too.

In one study, volunteers underwent one of three one-month regimes:

1. A diet low in saturated fat
2. The same diet plus 30 mg of lovastatin (one of the older statins)
3. A diet that included soy milks, soy burgers, almonds, oats, barley, psyllium, okra, and eggplant

People lowered their LDL by nearly 30 percent on the third diet, not far off from the 33 percent on the diet that included a statin, and much better than the 8.5 percent drop on the first diet.

You will find all sorts of cholesterol-lowering food lists, each one different, but the core includes nuts, fruits, vegetables, beans, and fiber. Some lists tout other foods for their antioxidants.

You also need to keep in mind that regular exercise alone may do more to lower your cholesterol level.

When it comes down to it, combinations are what count. You might have to experiment to find which diet works best for your body. That means keeping your doctor in the loop and getting your cholesterol tested regularly.

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