For most people, diet is synonymous with weight-loss plan. But if you add cholesterol control to diet, the picture changes.

The people who helped create the authoritative cholesterol-control diet, a regimen that delivers one simple message: Eat less fat and more dietary fiber. Not that food energy doesn’t count: Losing weight is an excellent way to improve your cholesterol numbers. But the pleasant surprise is that if you manage your fat and fiber, the food energy takes care of itself, and your diet takes care of your cholesterol. What a great deal.

All fats, including the fats in your food, are composed of fatty acids - long chain-like molecules of carbon and hydrogen atoms plus an oxygen atom or two. Folks in the know about fats put fatty acids into one of three categories: Saturated, Monounsaturated, Polyunsaturated. For the moment, the important thing to keep in mind is that a diet high in saturated fats raises cholesterol levels, and a diet high in unsaturated fats lowers them.

Eating a lot of foods high in dietary cholesterol increases the amount of cholesterol in your blood and raises your risk of heart attack. So, controlling the cholesterol in your diet reduces the risk of two potential problems in your arteries. Cholesterol is a saturated fat found only in foods from animals: meat, dairy products, and eggs.

Dietary-cholesterol problem #1: Cholesterol and perhaps homocysteine (an amino acid produced when you digest food - the jury is still out on this amino acid) can rough up the linings of your arteries, creating teensy little crags that snag cholesterol particles as they float by. The trapped cholesterol particles snag other debris floating through your blood, producing small piles of gunk (technical term: plaque) that narrow and may eventually block the artery, leading to the unpleasant event called a heart attack.

Dietary-cholesterol problem #2: Extra cholesterol in your diet may also increase the amount of low-density lipoproteins (LDLs) in your blood. LDLs, also known as “bad” cholesterol, are the fat and protein particles that ferry cholesterol into your arteries, leading to problem #1.

Conclusion? Adding foods high in cholesterol can mess up any diet, which certainly explains why every description of a cholesterol-lowering diet calls the diet low cholesterol and controlled fat. You keep the cholesterol low and you control the kinds of fat by following the 30-10-300 formula: Less than 30 percent of your total food energy each day from fat - predominantly unsaturated fats Less than 10 percent of your total food energy each day from saturated fat Less than 300 milligrams of cholesterol per day, regardless of your food energy count.

Showing fat who’s boss After you decide to control your cholesterol by controlling the amount of fat in your diet, the question is, which foods work best and which foods aren’t that hot? What an easy one to answer!

Grains: Grains have very small amounts of fat - just about 3 percent of their total weight - and most of the fats in grains are unsaturated. In addition, grains are filling, and they have dietary fiber. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (USDA/HHS) says that a healthy diet is based on grain foods.

Fruits and vegetables: Fruits and vegetables have only traces of fat, and most of it is unsaturated. Your diet should have a lot of fruits and veggies.

Dairy products: Dairy products are a varied lot. For example, sweet cream is a high-fat food. Whole milks and whole-milk cheeses are moderately high in fat. Skim milk and skim-milk products are low-fat foods. And for the record, most of the fats in any dairy product are saturated, but milk products are your best source of calcium, so balance the fats and get your calcium by sticking to low- or no-fat dairy products - and don’t forget the yummy low- or no-fat frozen desserts.

Meat and poultry: Meat is moderately high in fat, and most of its fats are saturated. Some poultry - chicken and turkey - are relatively low in fat. Other poultry - duck and goose - have higher fat contents. You can lower the fat content of any poultry serving by removing the skin. I know; I know. That’s the good part! But your cholesterol levels will thank you.

Fish and shellfish: Fish and shellfish are special cases. Some fish, such as salmon and herring, are high in fat, but guess what? Those are the best fish from a cholesterol standpoint because their fats are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, polyunsaturated fatty acids credited with lowering your risk of heart disease. Your body converts alpha-linolenic acid, the most important omega-3, to hormone-like substances called eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). EPA and DHA appear to protect your heart by reducing inflammation, preventing blood clots, and - get this! - preventing other fats like cholesterol from injuring artery walls. Omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids, found in beef, pork, and several veggie oils (corn, cottonseed, safflower, and sunflower), are chemical cousins of omega-3s, but they don’t protect your heart.

Fats and oils: Vegetable oils, butter, and lard are high-fat foods, but their actual fat content varies from heart healthy to are-you-kidding-me!

Proteins: Protein is an essential nutrient - so important that its name comes from the Greek word proteios, which means “holding first place.” A protein molecule is a chain of other molecules called amino acids, the building blocks of protein. Amino acids are molecules made of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms, plus a nitrogen unit called an amino group. The amino group is essential for synthesizing (creating) specialized proteins, including the enzymes and hormones that make it possible for you to perform such basic functions as working your muscles and digesting food. So, when people talk about how much protein they need, what they really mean is how much nitrogen they need to synthesize specialized proteins. Your body also uses proteins to build new cells and maintain tissues. Considering all that, you may be puzzled as to why it has taken me so long to get around to talking about protein. The reason is simple. Some protein foods are positively loaded with cholesterol and saturated fatty acids:

• Animal protein: The only foods that add cholesterol to your diet are foods from animals - meat, poultry, fish, milk products, and eggs. Most of these foods are also high in saturated fatty acids. True, some animal foods have less cholesterol than others. True, some animal foods are lower in saturated fats. True, you can cut the fat and cholesterol content of animal foods by trimming visible fat. True, some animal foods are rich in special unsaturated fats called omega-3s that actually reduce everybody’s risk of heart disease. But generally, a diet designed to lower your cholesterol emphasizes foods from plants.
  
• Plant protein: Getting your protein from plant foods is a more complicated task than getting your protein from animal foods. Blame it on the amino acids (those “building blocks” of protein). Proteins from animals are labeled complete, meaning that they contain all the amino acids human beings need to thrive. Proteins from plant foods are often characterized as limited, meaning that they lack sufficient amounts of one amino acid or another. It takes a little work to mix and match plants to get the proper protein balance, but with no cholesterol and practically no saturated fatty acids, plant proteins are worth the effort, don’t ya think? At least once in a while.