By living a healthy lifestyle, a person can help keep their cholesterol numbers at optimal levels and lower their risk of getting heart disease, poor circulation due to narrowed blood vessels, or a stroke. Make healthy food choices when eating at home, dining out or shopping for groceries or edible gifts.

The human body produces all of the cholesterol it needs to live well, so people do not need to eat cholesterol in their foods or drinks. Also, science shows it is not dietary cholesterol in our food that we should really worry about. Instead, two types of unhealthy fats — saturated fat and trans fat — are major causes of elevated cholesterol levels in people. It just happens that many foods high in dietary cholesterol often also contain saturated and trans fats.

LDL is known as the “bad” cholesterol. Here’s what a person can do to help prevent high LDL cholesterol levels:

• Reduce or avoid foods high in saturated fat.
• Avoid or eliminate trans fat in the diet.

Instead, make healthier choices by selecting heart-healthy foods.

• Choose skim milk, and low-fat or fat-free dairy products.
• Cook with healthier oils, such as vegetable oil, and limit the amount of fried food to just a little.
• Buy foods that are low in saturated fat, have little or no trans fat, and are low in both sodium (salt) and sugars, such as lean meats, seafood, fat-free or low-fat dairy, whole grains, fruits and vegetables.
• Limit or avoid drinking alcohol. Too much alcohol can raise LDL cholesterol and also triglyceride (TG) cholesterol levels.

Some ingredients help lower a person’s LDL cholesterol. The main one to remember is soluble fiber, which means dietary fiber that is soluble in water. Add more soluble fiber to one’s diet by eating:

• Beans (black, pinto, lima, etc.), lentils and peas.
• Brussels sprouts, cooked carrots and broccoli.
• Tofu and edamame (young soybeans).
• Apples, pears, bananas, blackberries and citrus fruits.
• Oatmeal, oat bran and barley.

Here are additional suggestions for how to increase fiber in your diet:  

• Eat five servings of fruit or vegetables daily.
• Use whole grains such as whole wheat instead of refined grains.
• Have oatmeal or bran cereal for breakfast.
• Cook beans, split peas or lentils at least once a week.
• Choose nuts or popcorn (but not microwave popcorn) instead of snacks like potato chips or sweets.

Soluble fiber can also be added as a supplement to one’s diet. Over-the-counter psyllium fiber such as Metamucil and Benefiber are powders that can be mixed in water or other drinks, or sprinkled onto cereal or other dishes.

Benefits of soluble fiber are due to the gel-like substance that the fiber becomes during digestion. Soluble fiber reduces the body’s ability to absorb fat, and it lowers LDL cholesterol and improves blood sugar levels. It also increases healthy gut bacteria, which helps a person digest better.

Here’s a good article from Cleveland Clinic that talks about fiber in foods, both the soluble and insoluble types of fiber, and how each type benefits our health.

To help stay away from saturated fats, remember that saturated fats are in animal products and tropical oils, such as:

• Red meat, beef, pork or lamb.
• Poultry with the skin on, ribs, highly marbled meat or other fatty cuts of meat.
• Hot dogs, sausage, bacon or pepperoni.
• Dairy desserts, whole milk, butter, cream, cream cheese or sour cream.
• Palm oil, coconut oil or fried foods.

The other unhealthy fats that raise people’s cholesterol levels are trans fats, which are sometimes called "partially hydrogenated vegetable oil." Trans fats are not a necessary nutrient in anybody’s diet, but they were often used in margarines and in store-bought, packaged cookies, crackers and pastries.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned the use of partially hydrogenated vegetable oils several years ago. Canada and a group of other nations have a similar ban. Small amounts of trans fat still exist in foods in the U.S. despite the ban, partly because some trans fat is created by the food processing and cooking during production even if trans fat is not added.

The safer habit to follow is to avoid processed foods, because a nutrition label showing 0 grams trans fat per serving can mean 0.1 grams up to 0.4 grams, due to rounding down the numbers to 0. For example, eating three servings of a processed snack that has 0.4 g of trans fat per serving means the same as eating 1.2 g of trans fat — the fat grams can add up if multiple servings are eaten.

Foods that may still contain trans fat include:

• Fried foods such as French fries, fried chicken or fried fish sticks.
• Shortening, margarine, ice cream or non-dairy creamer.
• Frozen pizza, commercially made pies or pie crust.
• Microwave popcorn, pre-packaged cookies or pastries.

Health changes take time, so be patient. If you’ve made changes to what you eat in your daily diet, your cholesterol levels will improve over time.

• Be patient and give your body time to adjust to your new nutritional habits.
• Meanwhile, be sure to get some exercise as a daily routine.
• Ask your provider how long it may take to see changes and when you should recheck your cholesterol blood levels. This can be done by scheduling a video appointment with a HealthTap primary care doctor.