Cream cheese is delicious when it's spread on a bagel for breakfast, but just 1 oz of cream cheese contains a whopping 27 mg of cholesterol. When the actual serving size that most people put on their bagel is totalled, it can add up to a very large percentage of the recommended daily allowance of cholesterol.
Products like ice cream, sour cream, cream cheese — almost anything made from milk — are high in cholesterol. Several studies have shown that the fat found in dairy can raise your LDL (“bad”) cholesterol level, so avoid eating these products on a regular basis.
Keep cheese portions small and weigh them to reduce temptation. Using lower-fat cheeses – such as mozzarella, feta, cottage cheese or reduced-fat cheeses – will provide less saturated fat.
HDL (high-density lipoprotein) cholesterol, sometimes called “good” cholesterol, absorbs cholesterol in the blood and carries it back to the liver. The liver then flushes it from the body. High levels of HDL cholesterol can lower your risk for heart disease and stroke.
Fat Content
The same amount of low-fat cream cheese contains less than 4.5 grams of fat. Most of the fat in cream cheese is saturated. This unhealthy fat is harmful to your heart because it increases low-density lipoprotein, the type of cholesterol that clogs arteries.
Cutting back on saturated fat (found in meat and dairy products) and trans fat (partially hydrogenated oils) can reduce cholesterol by 5% to 10%.
Regular cream cheese has a fair amount of fat, especially the artery-clogging kind, for a pretty moderate serving. Cream cheese also doesn't provide a significant amount of any good-for-you nutrients.
Cream cheese is delicious when it's spread on a bagel for breakfast, but just 1 oz of cream cheese contains a whopping 27 mg of cholesterol. When the actual serving size that most people put on their bagel is totalled, it can add up to a very large percentage of the recommended daily allowance of cholesterol.
A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that people who ate cheese daily for six-week intervals had lower LDL, or “bad” cholesterol, than when they ate a comparable amount of butter.
A new study finds that consuming butter induces a significantly greater increase in LDL cholesterol compared with cheese, and the effects are particularly pronounced in participants with high baseline LDL cholesterol.
Greek yogurt has been connected to lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels, which can reduce your risk of heart disease. Cholesterol and triglycerides can harden or block your arteries over time, leading to heart disease or atherosclerosis.
Whole Grain Toasts
There is no reason to throw carbs out of the window if you have high cholesterol; just be mindful of what you're eating. Whole wheat or whole grain bread is your best bet due to the high amounts of fiber compared with other bread.
The worst foods for high cholesterol, given their high saturated fat content, include: Red meat, like beef, pork, and lamb, as well as processed meats like sausage. Full-fat dairy, like cream, whole milk, and butter. Baked goods and sweets.
"Among the cheese options, cream cheese may be the worst cheese for your heart." Sign up for our newsletter! Manaker continues to explain that cream cheese is high in saturated fat and it isn't particularly rich in many micronutrients. On average, in 2 tablespoons, cream cheese consists of 87% fat in its calories.
While coffee does not contain cholesterol, it can affect cholesterol levels. The diterpenes in coffee suppress the body's production of substances involved in cholesterol breakdown, causing cholesterol to increase. Specifically, coffee diterpenes may cause an increase in total cholesterol and LDL levels.
In general, the way you cook and eat your eggs does not significantly impact the cholesterol amount. Hard or soft boiled, fried or poached eggs and omelets all contain around 185 mg of cholesterol. Remember, egg whites contain zero cholesterol.
Scientists around the world simultaneously showed that saturated fat—the kind in butter and lard—increases both “bad” LDL cholesterol and “good” HDL cholesterol, making it similar to carbohydrates overall but not as beneficial to health as polyunsaturated fats from nuts and vegetables.
Nonfat cheddar cheese: It contains 5mg of cholesterol and 0g of saturated fat per one-ounce serving. Ricotta cheese: This lasagna staple has under 9mg of cholesterol and 1.4g of saturated fat per ounce. Swiss cheese: One slice of Swiss has less than 1g of saturated fat and 10mg of cholesterol.
Switching from cream cheese to peanut butter is a wise choice, nutritionally speaking. Peanut butter may be higher in calories than cream cheese (95 calories per tablespoon versus 50), but it delivers what cream cheese doesn't: heart-healthy fats, fibre, B vitamins, vitamin E, magnesium, potassium and phytochemicals.
Like many other fruits and vegetables, avocados have no cholesterol. Healthy avocados also contain good fats and can improve your intake of dietary fat, which in moderation helps with nutrient absorption, without raising LDL (“bad”) cholesterol levels.
“Chocolate doesn't increase cholesterol levels, but it doesn't decrease cholesterol levels either.” Still, cocoa — a major ingredient in chocolate — may prove to be the next frontier in health research, according to Kris-Etherton.
Bread does not generally contain cholesterol, but varieties that include animal products, such as milk and butter, do contain cholesterol. White bread and other types made from refined grains may raise a person's cholesterol levels.
Signs that your cream cheese has gone bad include changes in appearance and color, such as yellowing, mold specs, slime, or dryness. Lucky Belly warns that the spoiling process has begun if you see dried-out places on the cream cheese with larger pools of liquid.