How Much Saturated Fat Is Safe To Eat Per Day If You Have High Cholesterol

Some foods can make your low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol numbers go up. As your LDL cholesterol rises, your risk of developing cardiovascular disease goes up, too.

Even if your high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol stays within normal parameters, having elevated and uncontrolled LDL cholesterol can become a serious, even life-threatening, problem. Findings from a 2018 review in Circulation showed a clear correlation between elevated LDL cholesterol levels and the risk of death due to cardiovascular disease. Individuals whose combined non-HDL cholesterol numbers were at least 160 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) had a 50% to 80% higher heart disease mortality risk than those whose numbers were lower.

In other words, you probably want to err on the side of better health and keep your LDL cholesterol in check if it's on the high side by limiting your intake of saturated fats. The more saturated fat you consume, the more likely you'll be to experience a buildup of LDL cholesterol in your body. (Here are some of the foods to eat and to avoid for high cholesterol.)

Though you could conceivably cut out all saturated fats from your diet, you don't have to go to extremes. Instead, consider limiting your daily saturated fat intake based on the recommended daily allowance from the American Heart Association (AHA), which is around 6% of your total calories.

For example, if you're trying to eat around 2,000 calories a day, you could set aside 6% of them (120 calories) for saturated fat. Since a single gram of fat contains 9 calories, you would then divide 120 by 9 to get 13, which would be your target grams of saturated fat per day.

To give you a picture of what 13 grams of saturated fat looks like, let's consider a food with a lot of saturated fat, like red meat. According to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a 3-ounce portion of ribeye steak offers a little more than 7 grams of saturated fat. In comparison, a whole ribeye steak has more than 21 grams of saturated fat, making it one of the worst foods you can eat for high cholesterol.

Consequently, you may want to take time to evaluate the meals you eat regularly to determine if they're higher in saturated fat than you might want. Even if you don't have access to a nutrition label, you can tell that a fat is saturated because it remains solid at room temperature. And even if you can't see the fat (e.g., if it's in a baked good or pre-made product), you can be fairly certain it may be a saturated fat if it came from a dairy or meat source.

This doesn't mean that you need to shy away from all fats, though. Many kinds of unsaturated fats can be heart-friendly choices that won't raise your LDL cholesterol levels or increase your likelihood of being diagnosed with additional cardiovascular conditions. (Here's the best type of fats to consume to lower cholesterol fast.)

As explained by registered dietitian Anna Taylor (via Cleveland Clinic), "Monounsaturated [fats] are great for you and omega-3 polyunsaturated fats are stupendous for you." But Taylor added that "[you] don't want to hyper-fixate on just fats." Instead, she suggests creating meal plans that are both healthy and enjoyable.