To lower cholesterol

Focus on...Saturated Fat
Look for 1 g or less per 100 calories. (If the food has 200 calories per serving, it should have no more than 2 g of saturated fat.)

Most of the cholesterol in your blood doesn't come from high-cholesterol foods; it's actually made by your body--and the culprit is saturated fat. The more you consume, the more cholesterol your body makes. So even if you see cholesterol free stamped on the package, the food may still be a bad choice if it's loaded with saturated fat. Of course, you can still indulge in a little saturated fat-filled ice cream or cheese now and then--you just have to plan for it. A 1/2-cup scoop of your favorite flavor, for example, may have 13 g! Save it for a splurge and shoot for a minimal amount of sat fat the rest of the day.
Daily goal: No more than 10% of your daily calories (for a 1,600-calorie day, that's 17.5 g of saturated fat)

Glance at...Trans Fat
Look for 0 g in the nutrition facts and no hydrogenated anything in the ingredients list

Trans-free products are easier to find these days, but manufacturers can still claim "no trans fats" if there's less than 0.5 g per serving; eat two servings and you may get nearly 1 g of trans fat--enough to raise your "bad" LDL cholesterol and worse, reduce your "good" HDL cholesterol. That's why you have to scan the ingredients list, too: "Don't eat it if you see the word hydrogenated," says David L. Katz, MD, MPH, director of the Yale Prevention Research Center in New Haven, CT. "Look for trans-free products that list liquid canola and olive oils instead."
Daily goal: As close to 0 g as possible