What Is Cholesterol? How It Works, Foods to Avoid, and the Truth About HDL
What Is Cholesterol?
Cholesterol is a waxy type of lipid found in almost every cell of the body. A building block of animal life, cholesterol helps form cell membranes and plays a key role in the production of hormones, vitamin D, skin oils, and digestive acids.
The liver makes all the cholesterol that the body needs. Some factors can cause excessive levels of cholesterol to enter the bloodstream; over time, this can seriously impair our cardiovascular systems.
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'Good' Cholesterol vs. 'Bad' Cholesterol
Cholesterol is not water-soluble, meaning it can’t travel through the bloodstream on its own. For transport, it gets bundled with particles calledlipoproteins. The main types of lipoproteins that carry cholesterol are low-density lipoproteins (LDL) and high-density lipoproteins (HDL).
What About Triglycerides?
Like cholesterol, triglycerides are a type of fatty acid that come from our liver and from the foods we eat. They, too, get bundled with lipoproteins and carried through the body so cells can extract the fat and protein for use. When we consume more calories than we need, we take in excess triglycerides, which our body stores as fat. Because elevated triglycerides can contribute to atherosclerosis, triglyceride levels are typically measured alongside LDL and HDL cholesterol. Lifestyle measures aimed at reducing LDL cholesterol can also bring down triglycerides.
What Causes High Cholesterol?
For most people, high cholesterol is primarily lifestyle-related, theAmerican Heart Associationnotes. Lifestyle factors that drive up LDL cholesterol (or decrease HDL cholesterol) include:
Unhealthy diet
Being overweight or obese
Sedentary lifestyle
Cigarette smoking
Genes play a role in the amount of cholesterol that your liver produces.Familial hypercholesterolemia, an inherited genetic condition, impacts an estimated .05% of the population. Genetics can also influence cholesterol levels in indirect ways, such as by predisposing someone to be overweight.
Having Type 2 diabetesis a risk factorfor high cholesterol, though more research is needed to understand the connection.
Diet and Cholesterol
Among the lifestyle factors that can influence LDL cholesterol levels, diet plays a major role.
“Studies have shown that one of the strongest contributors to our blood levels of cholesterol, from a dietary standpoint, is our intake of saturated fat, which is found predominantly in animal products, particularly red meat (processed and unprocessed) and dairy.” Harkin adds that palm oil and coconut oil, which are found in many highly processed foods, are also high in saturated fat.
Trans fats also drive up cholesterol levels. Historically, these fats could be found in the form of partially hydrogenated oils in margarine, shortening, butter, cakes, cookies, and salty snack foods. In 2018, theFood and Drug Administrationbanned manufacturers from using trans fats, but these fats may still occur in deep-fried foods due to the extreme temperature at which oils are heated.
There’s beensome debateabout the degree to which dietary cholesterol raises blood cholesterol levels. Because foods high in cholesterol are also typically high in saturated fat, it’s difficult to tease apart the effects of each.
However, alarge 2019 studylooked for associations between the consumption of cholesterol and rates of cardiovascular disease in 29,615 participants over a median of 17.5 years. They found that, independent of fat and overall diet quality, higher cholesterol intake was in fact associated with a higher risk of CVD. They identified a dose-response relationship: For every additional 300 milligrams of cholesterol consumed daily, there was a 17% increase in the risk of CVD and 18% increase in the risk of death from all causes. (For reference, a single egg contains around 180 milligrams of cholesterol.) Similarly, in 2025 alarge-scale studyfound that participants who consumed more than 300 milligrams of cholesterol each day had a 15% higher risk of heart attack than those who consumed less than 300 milligrams daily.
The easiest way to keep cholesterol out of your diet is to steer clear of animal products. All animals produce cholesterol in their livers, so when we eat other animals or animal-based products, we consume their cholesterol. (This is why, whenchecking nutrition labels, the presence of any cholesterol is a telltale sign that an item isn’t vegan—though the absence of it doesn’t guarantee that a productisvegan.)
What Are Normal Cholesterol Levels?
Ranges for “normal” cholesterol levels vary based on age, sex, and medical history, but according to the Mayo Clinic, adults age 20 and older should aim for the following numbers.
Interpreting Total Cholesterol Numbers
Total Cholesterol (mg/dL)ResultsBelow 200Desirable200–239Borderline high240 and aboveHigh
Source: Mayo Clinic
Interpreting LDL Cholesterol Numbers
LDL Cholesterol (mg/dL)ResultsBelow 70Optimal for people who have coronary artery disease (CAD)Below 100Optimal for people who have diabetes or other risk factors for CAD100–129Near optimal if there is no CAD; high if there is CAD130–159Borderline high if there is no CAD; high if there is CAD160–189High if there is no CAD; very high if there is CAD190 and aboveVery high, likely representing a genetic condition
Source: Mayo Clinic
Interpreting HDL Cholesterol Numbers
HDL Cholesterol (mg/dL)PoorBetterOptimalMenBelow 4040–5960 and above*WomenBelow 5050–5960 and above*
Source: Mayo Clinic
*Note: There is some debate about whether HDL cholesterol in excess of 60 mg/dL is truly beneficial. LDL cholesterol levels may be a more reliable indicator of cardiovascular health.
For more detailed information about normal cholesterol levels, see the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiologyguidelines for clinicians.
Complications of High Cholesterol
Theprimary complicationarising from high cholesterol is cardiovascular disease, including coronary artery disease, stroke, and myocardial infarction (heart attack). Strokes and heart attacks follow a similar chain of events: An arterial plaque ruptures. A blood clot forms on the ruptured plaque. The blood clot completely blocks blood from flowing through the artery, preventing blood from getting to the brain (in the case of stroke) or the heart (in the case of heart attack).
High cholesterol and resulting atherosclerosis may contribute to high blood pressure, as the heart has to work harder to pump blood through constricted, plaque-laden blood vessels.
In addition to cardiovascular complications, anumberofstudiessuggest that high cholesterol may impairinsulin sensitivity, leading to insulin resistance. Insulin resistance significantly increases the risk of several chronic diseases including Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, chronic kidney disease, and Alzheimer’s disease.
How to Lower Cholesterol
For patients with extremely high cholesterol and/or established cardiovascular disease, lipid-lowering medications, such asstatins, may be necessary. For many people, lifestyle modifications alone may be enough to bring cholesterol down into the healthy range.
“For the vast majority of patients who have elevated cholesterol and who do not yet have heart disease, the first-line therapy is lifestyle modifications,” says Harkin. “That involves changes in diet, exercise, and all the other lifestyle factors, but diet [is] one of the biggest levers that we can pull.”
Success Stories
Forks Over Knives has heard from many readers over the years who have reduced their cholesterol after adopting a whole-food, plant-based lifestyle.
I Put High Cholesterol, Severe Arthritis Behind Me by Changing My Diet
LDL Cholesterol Cut in Half on a Plant-Based Diet
What Giving Up Meat, Dairy, and Processed Foods Did for My BMI, Blood Pressure, and Cholesterol
Since Going Plant-Based, I've Lost 45 Pounds, Lowered My Cholesterol, and Stopped Getting Uterine Fibroids
How I Curbed High Cholesterol, Fibroids, Heartburn, and Anemia
I Suffered a Widowmaker Heart Attack at 45. Today I'm Thriving on a Plant-Based Diet
To learn more about a whole-food, plant-based diet, visit our Plant-Based Primer. For meal-planning support, check out Forks Meal Planner, FOK’s easy weekly meal-planning tool to keep you on a healthy plant-based path.