Healthy Foods to Eat That Will Get Your Cholesterol Down

Soluble Fiber

Get the recommended 25 grams of fiber each day, and make a portion of this fiber soluble fiber. Getting 3 grams of the soluble fiber beta-glucan from oats each day can help lower your cholesterol levels by up to 10 percent, according to a study published in "Nutrition Reviews" in June 2011. Other foods with soluble fiber include pears, apples, prunes, kidney beans and barley.

Monounsaturated Fat

Replace some of the saturated and trans fats in your diet with monounsaturated fats. A study published in "The Canadian Medical Association Journal" in December 2010 found that adding this type of fat to a cholesterol-lowering diet led to higher levels of high-density lipoprotein, or good cholesterol, while lowering levels of low-density lipoprotein, or bad cholesterol. Good sources include nuts, olives, extra-virgin olive oil and avocados.

Omega-3 Fats

Foods containing essential omega-3 fats, including seafood, walnuts, soybeans and flaxseed, may also improve your cholesterol levels. A study published in 2002 in "The Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition" found that people who ate fish regularly had lower LDL levels and higher HDL levels than people who didn't eat fish regularly. The American Heart Association recommends eating at least two servings of fish per week.

Plant Sterols

Adding plant sterols to a cholesterol-lowering diet may help you lower your LDL cholesterol more than following this type of diet alone, according to a study published in "Metabolism: Clinical and Experimental" in 2008. You need to eat foods containing at least 1 to 2 grams per day of plant sterols for the best results. The easiest way to do this is to consume foods fortified with plant sterols, including some types of yogurt, margarine and orange juice.

Legumes

Cholesterol-lowering diets often include soy protein. While some of the cholesterol benefits of using soy protein are due to soy replacing meats and other fatty sources of protein in your diet, soy protein itself also helps decrease cholesterol, according to a study published in "The Journal of Nutrition" in October 2010. Adding other types of legumes to your diet will result in lower cholesterol levels as well, according to another study published in "Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Disease" in February 2011, so don't worry if you aren't a big fan of soy.