Low Cholesterol Menu Plans

People with high cholesterol are at risk of heart disease, which is the leading cause of death in both men and women in the United States. There are prescription medications available to help reduce high cholesterol; however, eating a healthy, low-fat diet that is also low in low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (the "bad" cholesterol) will greatly improve a person's heart health. It will also help prevent people from getting high cholesterol in the first place.

Mayo Clinic

The Mayo Clinic partners with eDiet.com to provide a reliable and authoritative resource for healthy eating. It also has several diets and meal plans from which to choose, including the Mediterranean Diet. The Mediterranean Diet is, according to the Mayo Clinic, a "heart-healthy eating plan" that lowers LDL cholesterol and reduces the risk of heart disease. Foods that are common on the Mediterranean Diet are nuts, whole grains and fish. There is a fee for signing up with eDiet's Mediterranean online plan. In return you will receive one-on-one dietician support, custom meal and exercise plans, lots of recipes, access to a social networking community and a weight-loss guarantee.

There are other resources online that offer free Mediterranean Diet meal plans including Good Housekeeping and Today's Parents (see Resources).

Dr. Gourmet

Another good meal plan available online is from DrGourmet.com, which has several special diet plans, including low cholesterol. It is a free service where you can create a customized low cholesterol meal plan. You can even print out shopping lists based on your meal plan. It will also keep track of what you and your family are eating and will count how many calories you are taking in vs. how many you are burning. The low cholesterol meal plan offers recipes that are low in fat and low in bad cholesterol with the goal of reducing your fat intake to about 30 percent of your total daily calories, and saturated fats less than 10 percent of your total caloric intake. Dr. Gourmet also helps you keep track how much cholesterol you are eating, trying to keep it below 300 milligrams per day, but for persons with extremely high cholesterol, less than 200 milligrams per day.