What foods contain cholesterol?

It is relatively easy to point out which foods contain cholesterol or not. Simply put, food sources which are derived from plants such as oatmeal, vegetables, fruit and nuts are free of cholesterol. While foods from animal sources do contain cholesterol such as milk, cheese, meat, fish, poultry and eggs.

Are fat and cholesterol the same?

Even though fat and cholesterol are often mentioned together they are not the same. Foods such as peanut butter maybe high in fat but contains no cholesterol, therefore high fat foods need not necessarily be high in cholesterol.

In animals cholesterol is part of the cell membrane structure of many types of cell, so by trimming away visible fat or removing the skin from chicken you are only removing some of the cholesterol, but a large portion of fat.

There is approximately 20 mg of cholesterol in 28 g of meat, whether it be Beef, Pork, Chicken, Turkey or Fish. This is because cholesterol is an integral part of the muscle cells and muscle tissue as a whole.

Dairy products are slightly different as their cholesterol content is dependant on the level of fat present. For example, milk is secreted from animals cells but the same as in animal muscle tissue, it has no cholesterol containing membranes. But as cholesterol is fat soluble, the cholesterol rides along with the fat in the milk, it is the same for other milk based products. So it can be seen that the more fat the dairy product contains the more cholesterol the said dairy product will contain.

High cholesterol foods.

The two highest concentrated sources of cholesterol are liver and eggs. The egg contains a large supply of cholesterol which is used to fortify the chicks cells before it hatches. The liver produces its own cholesterol so naturally liver will have a high content.

Levels of cholesterol in foods.

per 100 gm	Cholesterol in mg	per 100 gm	Cholesterol in mg
Lean beef, fat removedBeef with fatMinced beef, fat reduced Minced beef, regular Pork loin, fat removed Pork with fat Ham Bacon Bologna Bratwurst Lamb, fat removed Lamb with fat Veal cutlet Duck Chicken, fried with skin Chicken, roasted no skin Turkey, dark meat Turkey, light meat Catfish, breaded and fried Cod, baked Haddock, baked Salmon, baked Tuna, packed in oil Tuna, packed in water	818684 90 81 84 59 85 59 60 122 122 128 89 167 85 85 69 81 55 74 87 31 42	CrabClamsShrimp, breaded and fried Shrimp, boiled Lobster, boiled Eggs, 2 whole Eggs, 6 Yolks Eggs, white no yolk Full fat milk Semi-skimmed milk Skimmed milk Yoghurt, low fat Yoghurt, full fat Cheddar cheese Swiss cheese Mozzarella Processed cheese Cream Neufchatel Cottage cheese Dry curd Ice milk Ice cream, regular Ice cream, deluxe Sherbet Cream	5967177 195 72 548 1602 0 14 7 2 6 13 107 93 54 64 111 76 15 7 7 44 59 7 137