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At the rate that many of us are consuming food high in saturated fat, it's no surprise that a person close to you might have high cholesterol. Just a disclaimer here, do not view cholesterol as damaging for you. The thing is our bodies require cholesterol to perform healthily, mainly good cholesterol. It's not the good cholesterol that you have to be troubled about. Its the bad ones that can put you at a greater risk of heart diseases. What you will understand from the low cholesterol diet plan is how to refrain from bad cholesterol while preserving your good cholesterol intake. All you need is really a few minor adjustments easy dietary changes to achieve that.

Rule #1 : Stay Away From Saturated Fat

Consuming too much saturated fats can elevate your bad cholesterol levels. Saturated fat can easily be found in many of our every day food stuffs like fatty meat, butter and full cream dairy products. Such food stuffs are frequently used to make our food yummier but why is it so unhealthy?

Cholesterol production in our body is carried out by the liver. Ever considered what the liver uses to produce cholesterol? It makes use of saturated fat. All you need to do is to lower your saturated fat intake by 50% and you will be pleased that how much your cholesterol levels will improve. Have a look at these 9 simples approaches of minimizing your saturated fat intake:

1. Remove all visible fat and skin from meat prior to cooking

2. Consume less red meat

3. Limit the intake of red meat to not more than 3 times per week

4. Substitute all your full cream products with low fat ones

5. Replace butter with a healthier spread like canola

6. Try grilling your food in an air convection oven rather than frying it

7. Use lean meat to make your mice meat instead of buying it straight from the supermarket

8. Consume less processed meat products like pepperoni, salamis, jerky

9. Use less creamy dressings like Thousand Island and more vinaigrette based ones

Rule # 2 Incorporate Good Fats Into Your Low Cholesterol Diet Plan

Small amounts of good fats can in fact help to reduce your LDL and TG levels and maximize your cardiovascular well-being. Do note that the fundamental phrase here is 'small amounts'. You don't have to start getting all silly with your olive oil.

There are 2 main types of good fats:

Monounsaturated fats: Found generally in olive oil, canola oil and avocados

Polyunsaturated fats: Found mostly in seaweed, sardines, walnuts, soybeans

Use the following ways to add more good fats in your diet:

Use an unsaturated cooking oil. Olive oil and canola oil are good choices

Eat more unsalted nuts on a regular basis

Have a serving of oily fish 2-3 times a week and taking a daily omega-3 supplement can also very useful especially if you have elevated LDL and TG

Use a nut spread e.g. almond spread, sesame spread for your toast, pasta and salads in replacement of butter

Mix in a good amount of flaxseed or sunflower seeds in your diet

Rule #3 Exclude Trans Fat From Your Diet

Trans fat is used to improve on the texture and the way processed foods feel when we eat it. By cooking at very high temperatures, cooking oil can be changed into trans fat. Why trans fat is considered detrimental because it gives you more bad cholesterol than good cholesterol.

As you may already gather, trans fat is basically found in many processed foods and foods that have been deep fried at high temperatures. Nowadays, many food manufacturers have taken an effort to make their food trans fat free or at least lower the amount present.

Make sure you read the nutritional labels on the food stuff you buy when you are out grocery shopping. Anything that contains 'partially hydrogenated oils, hydrogenated oils and vegetable shortening' means that the product contains trans fat. Of course it will be absurd for me to say that you have to cut out trans fat completely, that will be out of the question. To keep yourself from consuming too much trans fat, a good measurement would be less than 1g per serving

Rule #4 Load Up On Fiber

Dietary fiber is your best weight loss ally. It plays an important role in keeping your heart, digestive system and circulatory system healthy while helping you lose weight at the same time. Dietary fiber can be categorized into soluble and insoluble fiber.

Insoluble fiber is found mainly in whole grains and vegetables. Insoluble fiber gives you better bowel movements by adding bulk to your stools. By doing so, it also increases the body's discharge of bile salt and bile juice which are excreted along side with the stools. Bile salts and juices are actually made from the cholesterol in our body. So essentially, insoluble fiber helps to improve the body's usage and metabolism of cholesterol.

Soluble fiber is found primarily in beans, peas, apples and citrus fruits. It binds the dietary cholesterol in the gut and interferes with the cholesterol absorption process. Just by having a meal which is rich in soluble fiber, you can decrease cholesterol absorption rate by 20%.

Rule #5 Restrict Foods That Are High In Cholesterol

Although the primary aim is to lessen your saturated fat intake, there are some foods that are naturally high in dietary cholesterol which also raises LDL when consumed in excess. To name a few of the more common foods they would be egg yolks, seafood, crustaceans roe and offal. You are doing yourself some good by limiting the consumption of such foods to just twice weekly. For egg yolks, limiting to 3 per week is advised.

If you are someone that has been eating foods high in cholesterol on a frequent basis, you are settling yourself in danger of getting heart problems and diabetes. The good thing is that high cholesterol can be remedied just by doing some dietary adjustments. Start by giving your diet a cleanup with my 5 golden rules of the low cholesterol diet plan. By watching what you eat, not only are you helping to keep your cholesterol levels in check but also the girth of your waistline!