How can high cholesterol be prevented?

There’s a lot of talk about how to lower high cholesterol levels, but not about what to do in order to prevent high cholesterol. There are things that you can do in order to keep your cholesterol under control, beginning with making a few lifestyle changes.

By living a healthy lifestyle, you can help keep your cholesterol in a healthy range and lower your risk of heart disease and stroke.

Make Healthy Eating Choices

Your body makes all of the cholesterol it needs, so you do not need to obtain cholesterol through foods. Eating lots of foods high in saturated fat and trans fat may contribute to high cholesterol and related conditions, such as heart disease.

Limit foods high in saturated fat. Saturated fats come from animal products (such as cheese, fatty meats, and dairy desserts) and tropical oils (such as palm oil). Foods that are higher in saturated fat may be high in cholesterol.

Choose foods that are low in saturated fat, trans fat, sodium (salt), and added sugars. These foods include lean meats; seafood; fat-free or low-fat milk, cheese, and yogurt; whole grains; and fruits and vegetables.

Eat foods naturally high in fiber, such as oatmeal and beans (black, pinto, kidney, lima, and others) and unsaturated fats, which can be found in avocado, vegetable oils like olive oil, and nuts). These foods may help prevent and manage high levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or “bad”) cholesterol and triglycerides while increasing high-density lipoprotein (HDL, or “good”) cholesterol levels.

Learn the Difference Between Saturated and Unsaturated Fats

Unsaturated fats, saturated fats, trans fats—what do these words mean? When it comes to your heart health, they are important to understand. While some fats can be helpful in keeping your cholesterol levels low, other can raise your cholesterol levels and place you at a higher risk of getting heart disease later on. Knowing which fats can sabotage your cholesterol levels can help you to prevent heart disease later on.

Maintain a Healthy Weight

Overweight and obesity raise levels of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. Excess body fat affects how your body uses cholesterol and slows down your body’s ability to remove LDL cholesterol from your blood. The combination raises your risk of heart disease and stroke.

To determine whether your weight is in a healthy range, doctors often calculate your body mass index(BMI). If you know your weight and height, you can calculate your BMI. Doctors sometimes also use waist and hip measurements to measure excess body fat.

Talk to your doctor about what a healthy weight is for you.

Work with your doctor on a food and fitness plan to help you reach or maintain a healthy weight.

Get Regular Physical Activity

Physical activity can help you maintain a healthy weight and lower your cholesterol and blood pressure levels.

Get active as a family. For adults, the Surgeon General recommends 2 hours and 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise, such as brisk walking or bicycling, every week. Children and adolescents should get 1 hour of physical activity every day.

Make physical activity a part of each day. Take the stairs instead of the elevator, park a little farther away, walk to the store, or do jumping jacks during commercials.

Exercise has many heart-healthy benefits including helping you to prevent high cholesterol and heart disease. The good news is that you don’t have to be a star athlete to get the benefits of exercise. There are many types of exercises you can do—from low-impact exercises to aerobic exercises—and all have shown some benefit in keeping your body limber and your cholesterol levels low. If you already have high cholesterol levels, exercise can be very helpful in preventing your cholesterol levels from increasing further.

Quit Smoking Now

When we think of smoking, we mostly think about the damage it can do to our lungs. However, the damage isn’t limited to the respiratory system. In fact, smoking can increase your cholesterol levels and contribute to heart disease. If you quit smoking now, you can prevent this from occurring, and reverse the damage that you have done.

Smoking damages your blood vessels, speeds up the hardening of the arteries, and greatly increases your risk for heart disease. If you don’t smoke, don’t start. If you do smoke, quitting will lower your risk for heart disease.

Talk to your doctor about ways to help you quit.

Learn more about tobacco use and ways to quit.

Limit Alcohol

Too much alcohol can raise cholesterol levels and the levels of triglycerides, a type of fat in the blood.

Avoid drinking too much alcohol. Men should have no more than two drinks per day, and women should have no more than one.