If you're overweight and have high 'bad' cholesterol, eating fewer carbs for four weeks might help lower your bad cholesterol and improve your overall cholesterol balance better than eating low-fat, high-carb foods.

Only low-carb diets raise 'good' cholesterol (HDL) in obese people without diabetes—even if they lose the same amount of weight as people on low-fat diets.

If you eat a lot of fat and very few carbs for half a year or more, the saturated fats in your diet tend to raise your bad cholesterol, while the monounsaturated fats might lower it — together, these fats explain about 40% of why your cholesterol levels go up or down.

Eating a lot of sugary and refined carbs for four weeks lowered both the bad and the good cholesterol in overweight men—which is surprising, because usually only the bad kind goes down. This might be because the diet also had more healthy fats in it.

Eating a lot of sugary and refined carbs for four weeks lowered both the bad and the good cholesterol in overweight men—which is surprising because usually only the bad cholesterol goes down. This might be because they also ate more healthy fats at the same time.

Eating more cholesterol from foods like eggs or liver is linked to higher bad cholesterol levels in people eating strictly controlled diets.