According to MedicalNewsToday, these should be at the top of your list of foods to avoid or at least cut back consuming. Reduce saturated fats. Saturated fats, found primarily in red meat and full-fat dairy products, raise your total cholesterol.Eat Heart-Healthy FoodsĪ few changes to your diet can reduce cholesterol and improve your heart health: Whether or not you are on medications, if you can make a few lifestyle changes like switching to a plant based diet to improve your cholesterol levels. “As you adopt lifestyle changes, everything starts shifting, and the improvements you see at 6 weeks often increase by 3 months.” What’s more, if you already take medications such as statins to improve your LDL cholesterol levels, these changes can improve their cholesterol-lowering effect and may lead to the need to eliminate medication with your doctor’s supervision. “I tell patients that you have to start somewhere and just keep going,” says Suzanne Steinbaum, DO, an attending cardiologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. It is especially the so called “bad” type known as low-density lipoprotein (LDL) which may be associated with plaque buildup in the arteries that you want to keep in balance with HDL. You can also get cholesterol through foods and, since plants do not create it, you can only find it in animal products like meat and dairy.” There, you already now have a hint at the first step you can take to start lowering your levels of cholesterol. Could you be one of them? Scary, right? But then, is it all bad? Let’s first ask the question: What is cholesterol? Healthline defines it as “a substance made in the liver that’s vital to human life. Nearly one in three Americans have high cholesterol, a condition without signs or symptoms, which is believed to up your risk for heart disease and stroke.