Learn: How To Lower Cholesterol
Looking to lower your cholesterol and improve your heart health? Understanding what cholesterol is, and the role it plays in health and disease, is an important first step. This guide walks through what cholesterol is, why it matters, what your numbers should be under the current guidelines, and the most effective ways to bring high cholesterol down, with food doing much of the heavy lifting.
Medically reviewed by Elizabeth Klodas, MD, FACC
Last Updated: July 2026
What is cholesterol?
Cholesterol is a waxy, fat-like substance your body needs to build cells, make hormones, and produce bile, which helps you digest food. It's essential, but most of us have more of it circulating than is good for us. There are two sources: the cholesterol your body makes on its own, which your liver manufactures and which accounts for most of what shows up on a cholesterol test, and dietary cholesterol, which comes from foods like meat, eggs, and full-fat dairy. Notably, the cholesterol you eat has a smaller effect on your blood cholesterol than most people assume. The type of fat you eat matters more, which is why eggs are no longer considered the villains they once were.
Read more: Understanding Cholesterol: What Everyone Gets Wrong
Why does high cholesterol matter?
Too much LDL cholesterol in your blood builds up in your artery walls. That buildup, called plaque, narrows your arteries and restricts blood flow to your heart, brain, and other organs, raising your risk of heart attack, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease. In fact, atherosclerosis cannot happen without cholesterol getting into the artery wall in the first place, which is why LDL is the number cardiologists focus on most. The good news is that lowering it, at almost any point, lowers your risk.
How do you lower cholesterol naturally?
You can lower cholesterol without medication, or alongside it, and for most people lifestyle is exactly where to start. The habits that move the number are diet, regular physical activity, reaching a healthy weight, not smoking, and managing stress, with diet the single most powerful lever of the group.
A heart-healthy diet emphasizes fiber, plant sterols, omega-3 fatty acids, and antioxidants, the four food-based nutrients with the strongest evidence for lowering LDL, while minimizing saturated fat, trans fat, and refined and processed carbohydrates. Physical activity helps too: aim for about 30 minutes of moderate activity on most days, which nudges LDL down, raises protective HDL, and improves how your body handles blood sugar. And because stress raises blood pressure, worsens insulin sensitivity, and can push cholesterol up, building in real recovery, through movement, connection, and rest, is part of the picture, not a footnote.
For a practical, step-by-step version, see How to Lower Cholesterol Naturally.
The types of cholesterol
Cholesterol travels through your blood in particles called lipoproteins, and these are what a cholesterol test measures. The two that matter most:
HDL is the "happy," protective kind. It acts like a cleanup crew, carrying cholesterol back to the liver to be cleared. This is the number you want high. Learn what HDL is and how to raise it.
LDL is the "lousy" kind, the one that deposits in artery walls and drives plaque. This is the number cardiologists obsess over, and the one you want low. Learn how to lower LDL.
Triglycerides, a type of fat carried in the blood, also matter. High triglycerides, especially alongside high LDL or low HDL, raise your risk further. Learn how to lower triglycerides.
You may also hear about ApoB, which counts the total number of cholesterol-carrying particles and is one of the best available predictors of risk. Learn about ApoB.
What causes high cholesterol?
Genetics play a role, and some people inherit a strong tendency toward high cholesterol. But heredity is usually not the whole story. Lifestyle factors, physical inactivity, excess weight, and a diet heavy in saturated fat and refined carbohydrates, typically coexist and make the numbers worse, sometimes markedly so. That's actually encouraging, because it means the levers that raise cholesterol are largely the same ones you can pull to lower it.
Read more: What Causes High LDL Cholesterol?
What's the best diet to lower cholesterol?
Eating for health is very different from dieting. Dieting turns food into an enemy; eating for health allows endless variety without deprivation. The goal is simply to eat more of the foods that promote health and fewer of the ones that promote disease.
Foods to lean into: vegetables and fruits, beans and legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds, olive oil, and other sources of fiber, plant sterols, unsaturated fats, and antioxidants.
Foods to limit: red and processed meat, fried foods, commercial baked goods, ultra-processed foods, and sugar-sweetened drinks and juices.
Well-studied patterns like the Mediterranean diet are built on exactly this approach. The reason a food-first strategy works so well is that the right foods lower LDL while simultaneously easing blood pressure, steadying blood sugar, calming inflammation, and supporting a healthy weight, one change with many benefits.
What should your cholesterol numbers be?
Targets depend on your overall risk, and they moved lower under the current American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association guidelines. As general reference points:
- LDL: under 100 mg/dL for the general population, under 70 mg/dL if you carry added risk factors, and under 55 mg/dL if you already have heart or vascular disease.
- HDL: below 40 mg/dL is considered poor; 60 mg/dL or higher is considered protective.
- Triglycerides: normal is below 150 mg/dL.
- Total cholesterol: generally below 200 mg/dL, though your LDL and ApoB matter more than the total.
Keep in mind that the right target is individual, and it hinges on your complete risk picture, not one number in isolation. Learn what your LDL should be, and how to read your cholesterol test results.
Most adults should have cholesterol checked periodically starting in their twenties, with testing more often as you age or if you carry risk factors.
Where do medications fit?
If lifestyle changes alone don't get you to your target, or if you already have heart disease or a very high starting LDL, medication may be necessary, and for some people it's genuinely essential. Statins are the most common and best-studied option, and there are several others beyond statins as well. But medication and food aren't an either/or. The better your diet, the better any medication works, which often means reaching your goal on a lower dose. Learn when it's okay to try food instead of statins.
How Step One Foods can help
This is the whole reason Step One Foods exists. Our foods are built around the four cholesterol-lowering nutrients, fiber, plant sterols, omega-3s, and antioxidants, delivered in the right amounts as a simple, twice-a-day substitution for foods you're already eating. In a randomized controlled trial conducted with Mayo Clinic and the University of Manitoba, the right foods lowered LDL in 80 percent of participants in 30 days, some by as much as a drug, with only a small dietary change. See how it works.