5 Super Bowl Snacks That Could Skyrocket Your Cholesterol

When you tune into the Super Bowl, you'll be tempted to eat a variety of unhealthy foods, thanks to advertising throughout the football season. Football draws ads for foods that tend to be high in sugar, sodium, calories, and fat, according to a 2025 study in JAMA Network Open. Some of these foods advertised during football games can have up to 76 grams of fat and 2,200 calories. That's not great if you're trying to watch your weight and cholesterol.

Many of these foods could be snacks at your Super Bowl party. According to the National Institutes of Health, foods high in saturated fats such as buffalo wings, pizza, and pigs in a blanket could send your LDL cholesterol levels (that's the "bad" kind) to unhealthy levels. Saturated fat should account for no more than 10% of your daily calories. That means that if you consume 2,500 calories a day, no more than 250 calories — or about 28 grams — should come from saturated fat.

Take Little Caesars, which often advertises during football games. If you split a large 3 Meat Treat Specialty pizza with a friend, that's already 1,481 calories and almost 26 grams of saturated fat. Not only that, but this pizza also has trans fat. Trans fat, which is in many of your favorite Super Bowl snacks, raises your LDL cholesterol and lowers your "good" HDL cholesterol.

Take-out from Little Caesars isn't the only Super Bowl food that could clog your arteries. Buffalo wings always go great with football. If you order from Wingstop, you'll be saving yourself from trans fat, but the saturated fat of a single buffalo wing can easily add up. One original hot buffalo wing from Wingstop has 90 calories and 2 grams of saturated fat. But who can eat just one buffalo wing? The blue cheese dip might cool your mouth, but that adds another 7 grams of saturated fat per serving.

Rather than ordering take-out, you could opt for your homemade favorites, such as pigs in a blanket. Depending on your recipe, a serving of pigs in a blanket can have 6 grams of saturated fat. What's worse is contains 400 milligrams of sodium, which can raise your blood pressure, and zero grams of fiber to help your digestive system.

So maybe you decide to pass on some of these Super Bowl foods and stick with popcorn. Take a close look at the popcorn's nutrition label. A kid-size order of movie theater popcorn with added butter (because you gotta have butter) puts you at 30 grams of saturated fat and 636 milligrams of sodium.

Organic banana chips may sound like a pretty healthy alternative. However, a 200-calorie serving has 10 grams of saturated fat.

Sure, you can eat a healthy spinach salad on Super Bowl Sunday, but you're entitled to live a little every once in a while. You can still have your pizza from Little Caesars, but skip the stuffed crust and processed meats such as pepperoni to reduce the saturated fat and trans fat. A Veggie or Hula Hawaiian pizza cuts your saturated fat almost in half even though you'll still be getting 2 grams of trans fat.

The boneless version of the original hot wings from Wingstop saves you 10 calories but also a gram of saturated fat. That can make a difference if you're eating 10 wings. 

Rather than using processed meat such as hot dogs or sausage in your pigs in a blanket recipe, try making them with lean chicken or even baby carrots.

Although air-popped popcorn has just a trace of saturated fat, not everyone has an air popper at home. You can opt for low-fat microwave popcorn, which has less than a gram of saturated fat. It also has 4 grams of fiber to help lower your cholesterol. 

Remember that even though some pre-packaged foods like banana chips are labeled "organic," that doesn't necessarily mean they're good for your cholesterol levels. You can make a high-protein, high-fiber snack out of a can of chickpeas by roasting them with olive oil for 30 minutes in the oven.