Eating a healthy, balanced diet low in saturated fat and trans fat can help lower cholesterol.
Try replacing foods high in saturated fat, trans fat and unhealthy fats with products that contain healthy fats.
Foods high in saturated (unhealthy) fat include:
- Processed or ready-to-eat meats (such as ham, bacon and salami)
- Crispy fast foods
- Processed foods (such as cookies and cakes)
- Takeaway foods (such as burgers and pizza)
- Fat on meat and skin on chicken
- Ghee, lard and copha
- Coconut oil
- Palm oil (often called vegetable oil in products) cream and icing
- Butter.
- Foods high in trans fats (unhealthy) include:
- Fried foods
- Plankton (such as cakes, pastries, pies and biscuits)
- Takeaways
- Butter
- Foods that list ‘hydrogenated oils’ or ‘partially hydrogenated vegetable oils’ in the ingredients list.
Foods high in polyunsaturated fats (healthy) include:
- Soybean oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, canola oil and margarines made from these oils
- Ppine nuts, pistachios and Brazil nuts.
- Fish
- Tahini (sesame butter)
- Flaxseeds (linseeds) and chia seeds
- Foods high in monounsaturated fats include:
- Vegetable or seed-based cooking oils, including: olive, canola, peanut, sunflower, soybean, sesame and safflower
- Avocados
- Olives
- Unsalted nuts such as almonds, cashews and peas.
