Dietary guidelines recommend eating more lean and unprocessed meats, including chicken and lean beef, as they are less likely to contribute to raising your cholesterol levels.

Chicken and beef are both staples of many meal plans, and they can be prepared and seasoned in thousands of different ways.

Both contain cholesterol and can affect your health, potentially raising your risk of high cholesterol, heart disease, and cardiovascular issues depending on how much is part of your eating styles each day.

But that in no way means fried chicken with the skin on is a better choice than a grilled sirloin steak — at least if you’re talking about heart health.

Quick tip on choosing meat

LDL cholesterol is the “bad” cholesterol. It contributes to plaque that can clog and narrow your arteries. This can break off as clots, which also may lead to a heart attack or stroke.

Since your body produces all the LDL cholesterol it needs, eating foods high in saturated fats, like fatty meats, including beef and chicken, can increase the amount of LDL cholesterol your body makes.

This is why it’s important to be aware of the type of meat you’re consuming and how you prepare and cook that for eating.

In recent years, the focus has shifted awayTrusted Source from how much cholesterol a food contains and shifted to focusing on how much saturated fat that food has.

The more saturated fats you eat, the more LDL cholesterol your body makes. This is considered more important to cholesterol management than the actual cholesterol content of foods.

The Dietary Guidelines for AmericansTrusted Source were updated in 2015 to remove a restriction on cholesterol in food, which had little effect on LDL levels.

Still, the guidelines recommend eating as little cholesterol as possible since foods high in cholesterol are usually also high in saturated fats.

Chicken and cows store fat differently and in different parts of their bodies. For instance:

  • chickens store fat primarily under the skin
  • chicken thighs are higher in fat and cholesterol than breast meat

The verdict is still out on the overall health effects of chicken compared with beef.

A 2019 study suggests that red and white meat might have the same effects on cholesterol and heart health. Specifically, the study delves into the effects that different types of proteins in daily diets may have on cholesterol levels.

Researchers found that eating high levels of saturated fat was linked to a cholesterol increase, no matter the type of meat consumed. Both protein types also led to higher cholesterol levels than non-meat eating.

However, the study had several limitations, including that it was small, with only 113 people, and didn’t include grass-fed beef or processed red meats like bacon or sausage.

A 2023 research review also notes that certain studies have found that eating lean, unprocessed chicken as a primary protein source may have beneficial or neutral effects on cardiovascular risk and conditions like type 2 diabetes as well as on body weight.

Importantly, the researchers point out that more research is needed on these limited, conflicting findings.

That limited research aside, the American Heart AssociationTrusted Source recommends that people who like to eat meat can take these steps in their eating plans:

  • try lean proteins, including skinless poultry, tofu, fish, or beans
  • fish like salmon, trout, and herring tend to be higher in healthy omega-3 fatty acids
  • grass-fed beef is also higher in omega-3 fatty acids compared with grain-fed beef
  • limit lean cuts of beef or skinless chicken to less than 6 ounces a day, which is about the size of two decks of cards

The American Heart AssociationTrusted Source points to these ways to help your cooking process contain less cholesterol and negative health effects:

  • Choose lean cuts of beef, like round, chuck, sirloin, or loin.
  • When you’re eating chicken, eat the white meat only.
  • Avoid processed meats like salami, hot dogs, or sausages. Look to those labeled “choice” or “select” but not “prime.”
  • Before you even start to cook it, trim the fat off your beef and continue to skim off the fat if you’re making a stew or soup.
  • Avoid frying your food. Instead, opt to grill it or broil it instead, and keep the meat moist while cooking it, with wine, fruit juice, or a low calorie marinade.
  • The kind of oil you use also makes an impact on your cholesterol intake. Limit or avoid butter, lard, and shortening because they’re high in cholesterol and saturated fat.
  • Oils based on vegetables, such as canola, safflower, sunflower, soybean, or olive oil, are significantly more heart-healthy.
  • Include plenty of vegetables, as fiber can help reduce cholesterol absorption after a meal.
  • Don’t replace your fat intake with carbohydrates. Doing so won’t reduce your chances of coronary artery disease.

Dietary guidelines recommend eating more lean and unprocessed meats, including chicken and lean beef. These are less likely to contribute to raising your cholesterol levels, especially as they may contain less saturated fats if cooked and prepared in a healthy manner.

You can take simple steps to ensure that your food choices and meal preparation are healthy, including choosing the best type of protein and ensuring that it doesn’t negatively affect your health.