How much Cholesterol should we consume from food?

In the past, doctors used to recommend that we should consume no more than 300 milligrams (mg) of dietary cholesterol per day or 200 mg per day if we had a high risk of heart disease. But research now showed that dietary cholesterol itself is not harmful. Cholesterol consumed in food is thought to play a relatively insignificant role in determining blood levels of cholesterol. 

Cholesterol is a natural substance and it is indispensable for the building of cells and for producing stress and sex hormones, as well as vitamin D.

In addition, cholesterol is also important for brain health and helps with the formation of our memories. Low levels of HDL cholesterol have been linked to memory loss and Alzheimer's disease and may also increase our risk of depression, stroke, violent behavior and even suicide. Our body produces all the cholesterol it needs in the liver and intestines from fats, sugars and proteins.

And so the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans do not lay out the limit for consuming dietary cholesterol from food.

Doctors now recommend that we limit the amount of harmful saturated fats, trans fats and added sugars instead in our diet. This is because when we eat too many saturated and trans fats, it causes our liver to produce too much LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, which winds up in artery-clogging deposits. For this reason, experts generally recommend avoiding trans fats altogether and limiting saturated fats to 10 percent or less of our total calorie intake.

The most recent recommendation by the American Heart Association (AHA) is to further limit saturated fats to only 5 or 6 percent of our total daily calories

Studies have also shown the negative impact the added sugars have on cholesterol and they increase our risk for cardiovascular disease. The AHA recommends no more than 6 teaspoons of added sugar for women and 9 teaspoons for men.