Causes of High Cholesterol
Your diet
Eating too much saturated fat (like the kind found in this classic breakfast) can cause high cholesterol. You will find this unhealthy fat in foods that come from animals. Beef, pork, veal, milk, eggs, butter, and cheese contain saturated fat. Packaged foods that contain coconut oil, palm oil, or cocoa butter may have a lot of saturated fat. You will also find saturated fat in stick margarine, vegetable shortening, and most cookies, crackers, chips, and other snacks.

Heredity
Your genes influence how high your LDL cholesterol is by affecting how fast LDL is made and removed from the blood. One specific form of inherited high cholesterol that affects 1 in 500 people is familial hypercholesterolemia, which often leads to early heart disease. But even if you do not have a specific genetic form of high cholesterol, genes play a role in influencing your LDL cholesterol level.

Your weight
Your beer belly isn't just bad for your social life. Being overweight may increase triglycerides and decrease HDL, or good cholesterol. Losing that gut can go a long way toward improving your beach bod, too.

Smoking
Research indicates that the habit of smoking may decrease "good" HDL cholesterol. Although there is no proof that smoking affects LDL, the "bad" cholesterol, the toxins produced by cigarettes may oxidise the LDL in the bloodstream, leading to inflammation.

Inactive lifestyle
Exercise can reduce cholesterol, regardless of your weight, and any kind of physical activity can increase your high-density lipoprotein (HDL) "good" cholesterol. You should aim to get at least half an hour’s worth of exercise every day. Swimming, walking and cycling are good forms of exercise, and simple things like taking the stairs instead of the lift can make a big difference.

Age and gender
Age has a lot to do with your cholesterol level. Men over 45 and women over 55 are at risk of having a cholesterol problem. Women tend to have higher HDL ("good") cholesterol levels than men because of the female sex hormone oestrogen. After menopause, though, this advantage is lost and women’s risk for heart disease increases.  There is also some evidence that high triglycerides pose more of a risk for women than for men.