High Cholesterol and Still in Good Shape?

You’re not much overweight, and you try to eat the right foods, but your doctor said you have high cholesterol. What can you do?

High cholesterol can affect anyone. You don’t have to be obese, and you don’t have to eat doughnuts, Big Macs, and French fries all day. Because of this, some people are surprised to learn that they have borderline to high cholesterol when they think they’ve been eating healthy and aren’t overweight. While overweight people are more prone to develop high cholesterol, all people over the age of 20 should get their cholesterol levels checked every five years. Even children who have a family history of heart disease should get their levels checked regularly.

Frightening as high cholesterol may be, you need some cholesterol for your body to function properly. But when your bad cholesterol (LDL or low-density lipoprotein) levels are high and your good (HDL or high-density lipoprotein) levels are low, you are at an increased risk for heart disease and atherosclerosis (the hardening of your arteries). This is a life-threatening situation that should be avoided at all costs.

Whether you’re thin or obese, here’s what you can do to lower your cholesterol.

There are several different types of fats. Contrary to what many people think, not all fats are bad for you. The type of fat you eat can either raise or lower your blood cholesterol levels. Saturated and trans fats will lead to high cholesterol. Check the nutrition labels of the foods you eat. When scanning food labels, you should know that trans fat is found in foods with the ingredient partially hydrogenated oils. This is found in baked goods, crackers, muffins, cookies, pies, fried foods, donuts, some margarines, and some dairy products. Saturated fat is found in many foods that contain trans fats. It is also found in processed meats, cheese, cream, butter, dark chocolate, shortening, and coconut.

Replace these fats with polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats to help lower your blood cholesterol numbers. Good foods to eat include avocado, fatty fish (salmon), olive oil, canola oil, and nuts.

Foods high in cholesterol will affect your cholesterol levels, but not as much as the types of fat you eat. Humans and animals produce some amount of cholesterol naturally. So when you eat animal products, it will contain cholesterol. This includes meat, dairy, and eggs.

Monitor the amount of dietary cholesterol you consume. If your LDL levels are normal, you should eat less than 300 milligrams of cholesterol a day. (An egg contains 185 mg of cholesterol.) If your LDL levels are high or if you’re on medication to lower your levels, you should eat no more than 200 mg of cholesterol a day.

One way to decrease the amount of cholesterol that’s absorbed into your blood is by eating a diet high in soluble fiber. The fiber keeps your digestive tract moving smoothly and efficiently, preventing cholesterol from being absorbed. Soluble fiber-rich foods include apples, oatmeal, lentils, oranges, nuts, celery, carrots, and flaxseed.

Add five to ten grams of soluble fiber to your daily diet and you can easily lower your LDL levels by five percent—or even more!

Lower your LDL and raise your HDL with exercise. One way exercise helps to lower bad cholesterol is by helping you lose or maintain weight. More weight equals more LDL cholesterol. Exercise also helps your body produce more of the enzymes that remove LDL from your blood, while creating larger proteins that carry cholesterol in the blood to make it harder for them to deposit themselves in blood vessels, and works to raise your HDL cholesterol.

Get at least 30 minutes a day of moderate- to high-intensity cardio, strength training, or flexibility exercises for the greatest results.

If changes to your diet, adding exercise to your lifestyle, and losing weight still don’t help to lower your cholesterol, it may be time to go on cholesterol-lowering medication. See your doctor regularly to monitor your levels. And remember—cholesterol isn’t you enemy. Too much bad cholesterol is.