Of all the information on the nutrition facts panel on food labels, cholesterol may be the most misunderstood. Part of the confusion comes from the fact that cholesterol in food isn't the same thing as the cholesterol that clogs arteries. To be sure, foods high in cholesterol can cause blood levels of cholesterol to rise. But only about one in three people seem to be especially susceptible to the effects of cholesterol in food. "And even then, dietary cholesterol isn't the biggest worry when it comes to heart disease," says Kathy McManus, MS, RD, director of nutrition for Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston. "Studies show it's only about half as important as saturated fat and trans fat in raising serum cholesterol levels."

Cholesterol-Free Food: What Does It Mean? All those factors can make it easy to get confused when you're trying to make a healthy choice at the grocery store. Many foods trumpet themselves as being cholesterol free or low in cholesterol. That's an easy claim to make. The main sources of dietary cholesterol are animal foods that don't carry nutrition facts labels, such as: organ meats

eggs

shellfish Cholesterol-free labels are misleading in another way. Foods loaded with saturated fat or trans fats can claim they contain zero cholesterol, but they're actually more of a threat to your heart and arteries than foods with a little cholesterol and less saturated fat.