You checked your cholesterol levels in your blood and found out they are too high. Now what? It’s crucial to start lowering your numbers because a high cholesterol, especially a high LDL cholesterol, is a major risk factor for heart disease. But before you start to lower your cholesterol, it’s important to look at what causes high cholesterol levels. So, here are the 3 main causes of high cholesterol. 

#1: Unhealthy Fats in Food

There are 3 types of fat in our food that are unhealthy and therefore cause elevated cholesterol levels in our blood. 

Trans fats

Although trans fats occur naturally in small amounts in dairy and meat, industrial processes typically add them to food. Manufacturers create artificial trans fats by adding hydrogen to liquid vegetable oils, making them more solid. As a result, this process increases the shelf life of the product and adds texture and taste, making these items more appealing to the masses.

Common sources of trans fats are:

• Fried foods: French fries, donuts, churros
• Commercially baked goods: cakes, cookies, pastries
• Margarines and shorternings
• Snack foods: microwave popcorn, crackers

Consuming trans fats increases serious health risks, such as LDL cholesterol, inflammation, heart disease, and obesity. Because of these health risks, many countries have implemented regulations to reduce of eliminate trans fats in food. 

Saturated fats

Saturated fats stay solid at room temperature. We call them ‘saturated’ because they are full of hydrogen atoms. Our bodies need some fat for energy and other functions, but if you eat too much saturated fat, it can raise the cholesterol in your blood. 

Animal products and some plant-based oils contain saturated fats. Let’s look at some examples:

• Red meat
• Poultry, especially with skin
• Diary products: cheese, butter, cream, whole milk
• Lard
• Processed meats
• Coconut oil
• Palm oil
• Cocoa butter
• Commercially baked goods: cookies, pastries, cakes
• Snacks: potato chips, crackers, and other packages snacks

Try to stay away from these products as much as possible if your cholesterol is elevated!

Cholesterol

Contrary to what you might think, dietary cholesterol does not actually contribute the most to elevated cholesterol levels in our blood. It plays only a small part. When you consume foods high in cholesterol, your body does absorb it into the bloodstream, which then elevates cholesterol levels. As you can see, we also mentioned many of the products that are high in cholesterol in the section about saturated fats and trans fats. Avoid those products!

These products are high in cholesterol:

• Egg yolks
• Meats: especially organ meats such as liver and kidney, but also red meat
• Poultry: especially with skin
• Seafood: shellfish like shrimp, lobster and crabs
• Diary products: butter, cream, cheese, and whole milk
• Processed meats: sausages, bacon to name a few

Try to stay away from those foods that are high in all 2 or 3 types of fats, like the full-fat diary products, red meat, poultry (especially with skin), processed meats, commercially baked goods, and processed snacks. I know, it’s a long list! But making these changes can have a major positive impact on your health.

#2: Having an Inactive Lifestyle

If you are not moving around enough each day, you are contributing to high cholesterol levels and therefore poor health, especially heart health. But how does this work? 

Physical activity stimulates enzymes that move LDL from the blood (and blood vessel wall) to the liver. The liver then converts LDL cholesterol into bile, or it’s excreted. Bile is used for digesting food. If you don’t exercise regularly, then less LDL cholesterol is removed from your bloodstream, leading to higher readings of cholesterol in your blood.

If you have an inactive lifestyle, then triglycerides increase. Triglycerides are also a type of fat we measure when checking your cholesterol levels or lipid levels in your blood. Elevated triglycerides also increase the risk of heart disease. 

#3: Obesity

Being obese significantly affects cholesterol levels, which in turn creates a higher risk for heart disease, not to mention the many other health issues. When you carry excess body weight, several negative changes occur in your cholesterol profile.

LDL cholesterol increases. Excess body fat causes the liver to produce more LDL cholesterol. Additionally, obesity-related inflammation can prevent the liver from being able to clear LDL from the blood, adding to the increase in LDL levels. Additionally, the liver produces more cholesterol in response to the demands of excess body fat.

Triglycerides also increase. When you overconsume calories, especially from sugary and fatty foods, your liver converts them into triglycerides. As we saw before, an increase in triglycerides adds to the risk of heart disease. In people who are overweight or obese, fat tissue releases more fatty acids into the bloodstream, which increases triglyceride levels.

That sums up the 3 main causes of high cholesterol! You probably see that these factors are interlinked. Unhealthy fats are related to obesity, and obesity is related to physical inactivity. 

More Causes of High Cholesterol

I’ll briefly mention five more factors at play:

1. Genetics: Your family history significantly influences your cholesterol levels. Genetic factors determine how your body processes cholesterol and other fats. The good news is that you can manage this with your diet. 
2. Smoking: This damages the walls of your blood vessels, which makes them prone to build up of cholesterol deposits or plaques.
3. Excessive drinking of alcohol: Drinking too much alcohol raises your total cholesterol and triglyceride levels. It contains high levels of sugar and calories, which your body converts to triglycerides and stores as fat. 
4. Age and gender: Before menopause, women usually have lower total cholesterol levels than men of the same age. After menopause, women’s LDL cholesterol levels tend to increase.
5. Certain medical conditions: such as diabetes, hypothyroidism, kidney disease and liver disease.
6. Medication: such as antipsychotics, steroids, and diuretics.

I hope this gives you enough information to start making changes. Try to tackle one category at a time. My advice is to start with your diet. You can greatly improve your numbers with dietary changes. If you are ready to do this, then make sure to download my FREE guide ‘6 Ways to Lower Your Cholesterol’.