My husband says that lobster is high in cholesterol. I don’t think so. Settle the bet. The wager is dinner out.
Start dialing for the dinner reservation and tell him to bring his credit card. You can healthfully start cracking at that lobster as it not only provides a modest amount of dietary cholesterol, but it is also low in heart-unhealthy saturated fat.
Saturated fat is the major dietary culprit in raising your “bad” LDL cholesterol levels. Dietary cholesterol can also make your LDL cholesterol go up, but not as much as saturated fat. The current recommendation is to keep you dietary cholesterol intake to less than 300 milligrams (mg) daily. A person consuming 2,000 calories should also keep saturated fat intake to less than 22 grams daily.
Lobster actually has less saturated fat and dietary cholesterol than chicken and lean sirloin, and swims way ahead of prime rib when it comes to saturated fat.
| Food (3 ounces) | Calories | Fat (grams) | Saturated fat (grams) | Cholesterol (milligrams) |
| Lobster, cooked | 83 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 61 |
| Chicken, light meat, skinless, roasted | 148 | 3.9 | 1.1 | 73 |
| Chicken, dark meat, skinless, roasted | 176 | 8.3 | 2.3 | 80 |
| Sirloin, lean, broiled | 171 | 6.7 | 2.6 | 76 |
| Prime rib, broiled | 240 | 16.0 | 6.9 | 69 |
Of course, there is that problem of the butter dipping sauce when it comes to eating lobster. A tablespoon of melted butter would drown your lobster in an additional 108 calories, more than 12 grams of fat, 7.5 grams of saturated fat and almost 35 mg of dietary cholesterol. Add these numbers to the lobster and your dinner will start to look more like a prime rib — nutritionally speaking, that is.
When you are enjoying lobster at home, try this fabulous dipping sauce instead of classic melted butter.
When you’re enjoying your lobster in restaurant, here’s a tip to tone down the butter sauce.