Can Almonds Raise Your Cholesterol?

Effect on Cholesterol

Eating almonds may help lower your triglyceride levels, your low-density lipoprotein -- or bad cholesterol -- and your total cholesterol levels, according to a study published in "Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases" in June 2011. After adding almonds to their diet for six months, study participants had lower cholesterol levels than when they followed their regular diet without eating almonds.

Mechanisms

Many of the nutrients in almonds are good for heart health, including fiber, unsaturated fat, calcium, potassium, manganese, magnesium, arginine, phytosterols, alpha-tocopherol and copper. These nutrients may help to limit the amount of cholesterol absorbed by your body and increase the amount of cholesterol and bile your body excretes, thus lowering the overall amount of cholesterol in your body, according to an article published in "Nutrition Reviews" in April 2011.

Compared to Saturated Fat Reduction

Adding almonds to your diet may help you lower your total and LDL cholesterol more than decreasing the amount of saturated fat you consume, according to a study published in "The Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism" in 2012. For the best cholesterol-lowering results, add almonds to your diet while decreasing total saturated fat consumption.

Considerations

Although eating almonds may provide you with some health benefits, this isn't the case if you eat too many of them. Almonds are high in fat, and even though most of this fat is the healthy unsaturated type, this fat still provides a lot of calories and can lead to weight gain. Use almonds to replace other foods that are high in calories or fat, and stick to about a handful of almonds or other nuts per day to keep from consuming excess calories.