How could diet affect high cholesterol?

    Researchedby:
    Mike Murray

    Fact-checked

    by:

    Nick Milazzo, James Gaylor
    Last Updated: October 25, 2023

    Diet directly influences blood cholesterol levels. trans fats and saturated fats have the greatest effect on LDL-C, so replacing foods rich in these nutrients with foods rich in polyunsaturated or monounsaturated fat, and to a lesser extent whole-grain carbohydrates (especially ones rich in soluble fiber), reduces LDL-C.[1]

    Plant-based dietary patterns, including the Mediterranean diet, Portfolio diet, and Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, can reliably improve LDL-C.[2]

    References

    1. ^Frank L J Visseren, François Mach, Yvo M Smulders, David Carballo, Konstantinos C Koskinas, Maria Bäck, Athanase Benetos, Alessandro Biffi, José-Manuel Boavida, Davide Capodanno, Bernard Cosyns, Carolyn Crawford, Constantinos H Davos, Ileana Desormais, Emanuele Di Angelantonio, Oscar H Franco, Sigrun Halvorsen, F D Richard Hobbs, Monika Hollander, Ewa A Jankowska, Matthias Michal, Simona Sacco, Naveed Sattar, Lale Tokgozoglu, Serena Tonstad, Konstantinos P Tsioufis, Ineke van Dis, Isabelle C van Gelder, Christoph Wanner, Bryan Williams, ESC Scientific Document Group, ESC National Cardiac Societies2021 ESC Guidelines on cardiovascular disease prevention in clinical practiceEur Heart J.(2021 Sep 7)
    2. ^Glen J Pearson, George Thanassoulis, Todd J Anderson, Arden R Barry, Patrick Couture, Natalie Dayan, Gordon A Francis, Jacques Genest, Jean Grégoire, Steven A Grover, Milan Gupta, Robert A Hegele, David Lau, Lawrence A Leiter, Alexander A Leung, Eva Lonn, G B John Mancini, Priya Manjoo, Ruth McPherson, Daniel Ngui, Marie-Eve Piché, Paul Poirier, John Sievenpiper, James Stone, Rick Ward, Wendy Wray2021 Canadian Cardiovascular Society Guidelines for the Management of Dyslipidemia for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease in AdultsCan J Cardiol.(2021 Aug)