Reduce saturated fat in meat and poultry

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. Solid fats are high in saturated fats, but oils are high in un saturated fats, which — remember — are better for you.

Looking after your weight

The American Heart Association AHA recommends using oils that have less than 4 grams of saturated fat per tablespoon and no trans fats. Try using olive oil, sunflower oil or grapeseed oil in place of a solid fat. You might also bring out some new, surprising, subtle flavors, too. Plus, many vegetarian meals are just as flavorful and filling as their meaty cousins. For dessert, add some fresh blueberries, strawberries and oats to low-fat vanilla yogurt. The key here is to build up a routine, like making every Tuesday night vegetarian night. Once that becomes the norm, try expanding to different nights, or add a weekly vegetarian lunch, too.

Over time, these modifications can really add up and pay off. This includes raising good HDL cholesterol, managing blood pressure levels and many other heart-healthy benefits. Do you need to start running every day? Do you 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?

Top 5 lifestyle changes to improve your cholesterol - Mayo Clinic

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.

Life's Simple 7: Control Cholesterol

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. Getting older also causes LDL cholesterol to rise. For some, heredity may play a role. So, a heart-healthy diet and regular physical activity are important to everyone for maintaining cardiovascular health.

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Understand the sources of cholesterol. Medications can help control cholesterol levels, but making diet and lifestyle changes are the best way to reduce heart disease and stroke risk. To lower your cholesterol, eat a heart-healthy diet and get at least minutes of moderate- to vigorous-intensity aerobic exercise a week.

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Learn more about cholesterol medications. Look for how much saturated fat, trans fat and total calories are in a serving. Check the serving size too. It may be smaller than you expect. Ingredients are listed in descending order of use, so choose products where fats and oils are near the end of the ingredients list.

How to Lower Cholesterol with Diet

Learn more about fats. But many hard margarines also have a high amount of saturated and trans fat. The healthiest choice is a liquid or soft tub margarine.

These are made with vegetable oils. They have less partially hydrogenated fat and saturated fat than solid spreads such as hard stick margarine and butter. Look for margarines that say 0 g trans fat on the Nutrition Facts label. Switching from butter to soft margarine is a good step. Learn more about eating a heart-healthy diet. About Cholesterol. Causes of High Cholesterol.

Fats and cholesterol

Prevention and Treatment of High Cholesterol. Cholesterol Tools and Resources. You may be trying to access this site from a secured browser on the server. Please enable scripts and reload this page. Menu Search. At six months, the average weight loss was almost 8 percent among all groups.

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