Do not wait till you fall sick to start eating the right foods. Wholesome nutrition is the foundation of sound physical and mental health. Deep-fried chicken and fries, cheeseburgers, red and organ meats, lard, and pastries are all best avoided on a regular basis. Pay attention to what you eat every day. Apart from following mindful eating habits, managing stress, and engaging in regular physical exercise, here are three main foods that you must definitely avoid if you have high cholesterol.

Red Meat
Red meat like beef, pork, goat, and lamb is a good source of vitamin B12, iron, zinc, and protein that is necessary for producing healthy new red blood cells, and building muscle and bone strength. However, red meat, especially the heavily processed kind, contains salt, preservatives, and unhealthy fats.

Sausages, bacon, salami, hotdog, and bologna are examples of processed meat that are associated with an increased risk of heart disease and colon cancer. All processed meat products contain high levels of saturated fats that inflate your cholesterol levels, thus leading to cardiovascular issues.

Also, during the digestion of red meats, a metabolite is produced. Metabolites are substances that form during the processes of digestion and metabolism. High levels of the metabolite trimethylamine N-oxide in your blood could double the risk of heart and kidney failure, and stroke. Alternative high-quality sources of protein are fish, chicken, garbanzo and pinto beans, kidney and soybeans, and black-eyed peas. Even these must be had in moderation, maybe two or three times a week to reap their nutrition benefits.

Deep-fried Foods
Deep-fried foods like fried chicken, steak-pies, french fries, chimichangas, and cheese sticks are crunchy and tasty, no doubt. But did you know they can cause death?

The hydrogenated oils in which potatoes, chicken, and other foods are deep-fried in restaurants and food factories contain trans-fats that contribute to heart disease, obesity, and diabetes. Trans fats increase LDL cholesterol levels while simultaneously lowering HDL levels in your body. Deep-fried foods are fatty, calorie-rich, and contain excessive salt and acrylamides. Acrylamide is a chemical that is a health concern, and cooking at high temperatures is the cause of acrylamide formation in some foods. Also, deep-frying, baking, and roasting food for long periods at high temperatures can cause cancer.

Junk Foods and Desserts
Mass-produced junk foods and desserts like cakes, pies, pastries, fried dough, angel-wings, ice creams, doughnuts, churros, and cookies contain saturated fats and trans-fats. These foods not only add empty calories and result in unhealthy weight gain but also leads to diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and cognitive decline.

Low-density lipoproteins or LDL is the bad cholesterol that does not do any good for health. On the other hand, too much of it can cause plaque build-up in your arteries and increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Obesity, or having a body mass index of more than 30, increases the risk of high cholesterol.

Junk foods and preservative-rich, calorie-poor desserts are the ideal repositories of unhealthy fats and cholesterol that can cause atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis reduces the free flow of blood through the arteries, thus causing coronary heart disease like chest pain, heart attack because of the rupture of plaques or blood clots in the arteries, and even stroke when blood flow is obstructed from reaching your brain.