Foods To Help With Triglycerides

What Foods Can Help Lower Triglycerides

Now that you know which foods to avoid, what foods can you add into your diet that can help support healthy triglyceride levels? “Foods to emphasize are high fiber vegetables with lower sugar content, such as cruciferous vegetables,” Archibald says. “Including legumes, canned or cooked from their dried versions, will add both fiber and satiety to the plate.”

Adding healthy omega-3 fats can be helpful as well. “Among fats, seek out foods rich in omega-3 fats, which not only act as natural anti-inflammatories in the body but can also prevent the production of triglycerides and cholesterol in the liver,” says Archibald.

Here are 20 foods that can lower triglycerides.

Refined Grains And Starchy Foods

Refined or processed grains are typically made from white flour, which can increase triglycerides. They also often have added sugars. If possible, try to limit:

• Enriched or bleached white bread, wheat bread, or pasta
• Pastries, pies, cookies, and cakes

Starchy foods can also raise triglycerides. Try to choose foods with 100% whole grains and opt for long-grain rice instead of instant rice. If possible, eat non-starchy vegetables such as spinach, instead of starchy ones like potatoes.

Foods To Avoid If You Have High Triglycerides

When you notice high triglycerides levels, watch your diet since foods high in triglycerides may make the condition worse. This may pave way for attack to your body, especially with heart related complications.

1. Avoid Starchy Foods

Starchy vegetables: Vegetables are generally good. However, some are starchy like mashed potatoes, beans, yams, peas and corn and thus should control their consumption. This way, your body will not have to convert excess starch into these triglycerides. Instead, eat kale, mushrooms and cauliflower.

Refined starch: Foods from refined flours also fall in the category of foods high in triglycerides. White bread made from refined floor does not have fiber needed to lower triglyceride levels in blood. Therefore, you should avoid foods made out of bleached, enriched and refined flours like pasta, bread, rice and crackers.

2. Reduce Saturated and Trans-Fats Intake

These are commonly found in pizza and animal foods. AHA recommends between 30-35% calories for your body and of these, saturated fats should not exceed 7%. Therefore, avoid or control eating chocolate, cheese, butter, pastries, poultry skin and fatty meats.

Trans-fats are in part hydrogenated oils used to make foods have more savory texture and taste and more non-perishable. Foods high in triglycerides lying in this category include fried foods like doughnuts, French fries, cookies, crackers and prepackaged baked foods like pie crusts and pizza.

3. Limit Sugars and Sugary Beverages

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Lunches To Reduce Your Risk Of Heart Attack

Here are some flavorful lunches you can pack, and a few you may even be able to buy.

Soup & Salad

1 cup vegetable, black bean, or lentil soup

5 whole-wheat crackers

2 cups salad made with dark greens, like spinach, mixed greens, or radicchio

1 cup of any combo of colorful, chopped veggies: broccoli, carrots, red bell peppers, sugar snap peas, snow peas, tomatoes

1 cup fruits: apples, grapes, kumquats, pears

1 Tbsp salad dressing made with olive oil or canola oil

Sandwich With Double Crunch

2 slices whole-wheat bread or 1 hamburger bun

2 oz tuna

Dill pickle relish or sugar-free sweet pickle relish

Top with thin slices of apple or pear for crunch

Add this crunchy side:

Finger Salad

1 cup veggies like baby carrots, grape tomatoes, and red pepper strips mixed with fruit such as apple, grapes, or pear

Chinese Delight

1 cup veggie stir-fry with 2 oz shrimp, chicken, or tofu

1/2 cup whole-wheat pasta or rice

1 cup pineapple chunks

2 oz grilled chicken breast on whole-grain sandwich

1 cup side salad

1 piece of fresh fruit

High Triglycerides Diet Food List

Maintaining normal triglyceride levels in the bloodstream is critical. Regardless, many people do not know the role triglycerides play in the body or even what they are.

Lifestyle changes and diet are the two leading causes of high triglycerides in the body. Others are certain medications and genetics.

Experts in nutrition and health say that changing your lifestyle, and what you eat can lower triglycerides.

We have compiled a list of triglyceride-lowering foods, many of them being whole nutrient-dense foods.

Also Check: What Is The Function Of Cholesterol

Treatment For High Cholesterol

Making lifestyle changes, especially changing some of the foods you eat, and regular physical activity, are very important to help reduce high LDL cholesterol.

• Move more. Regular physical activity is one of the best things you can do for your heart health. Increasing your physical activity from as little as 10 minutes a day to the Australian governments recommended 30 to 45 minutes a day, five or more days of the week, can help manage your cholesterol levels and reduce your risk of heart disease.
• Quitting smoking reduces the risk of heart disease and can help reduce cholesterol levels. The most effective way to stop smoking is with a combination of stop-smoking medicines and support from a service like Quitline . Speaking to your GP is also a great first step.
• Drinking alcohol doesnt have any health benefits. Alcohol contributes unnecessary kilojoules and is of low nutritional value. Alcohol is not a necessary or recommended part of a heart-healthy eating pattern. If you do drink, to reduce your risk of alcohol-related harm, healthy women and men should drink no more than 10 standard drinks a week and no more than four standard drinks on any one day.
• You may also need to take cholesterol-lowering medicines to help manage your cholesterol and reduce your risk of having a heart attack or stroke. Talk to your doctor about finding the most appropriate treatment for you.

Foods That Lower Triglycerides Naturally

Having high triglyceride levels is often part of the criteria when diagnosing high cholesterol, and it also plays a role in cardiovascular disease and strokes. Keeping triglyceride levels down in our blood stream may require the use of pharmaceutical medication, exposing you to the annoying and potentially harmful side effects. Thankfully, there is a natural way to regulate cholesterol and triglyceride levelsit includes keeping a healthy diet and simple lifestyle changes that will not only make you feel healthier but keep your blood vessels and heart muscles performing at their best. Here you will find a list of food that lower triglycerides.

Studies show over the past 30 years that more and more Americans are becoming overweight, leading to high triglyceride levels becoming a serious issue. They are linked to an increased risk of stroke and heart attack and may actually have a genetic predisposition, with high triglyceride levels and low good cholesterol numbers having a tendency to run in the family.

It is good to know what is considered a normal and abnormal triglyceride level.

• Normal: Less than 150mg/dl

High levels of triglycerides are often associated with obesity, diabetes, kidney disease, and thyroid disease.

Also Check: What Affects Cholesterol Levels In The Body

Mistakes You’re Making When Trying To Lower Your Triglycerides

Triglycerides are a type of fat that makes up most of your body fat stores. They can also be found in various foods, such as butter, margarine and oils. Beyond consumption of triglycerides, what and how much you eat also affects your blood triglyceride levels. When you eat more calories than you need, whether from carbohydrates, protein or fat, your body stores the excess calories as fat in the form of triglycerides.

Hypertriglyceridemia is a condition where elevated levels of triglycerides are present in the blood. It is a risk factor for heart disease and diabetes. Luckily, making changes to your diet and lifestyle can help lower your triglycerides and improve your health outcomes. Here are six mistakes that you may be making when trying to lower your triglycerides.

Add More Fiber To Your Diet

Fiber is the part of your food that isnt digested, and its important because it helps you feel full. According to a study published in February 2019 in the journal Current Developments in Nutrition, dietary fiber can reduce the risk of high triglycerides in young to middle-aged adults who are overweight or obese. In general, fiber-rich foods also have carbohydrate content that is more complex and can lead to more gradual absorption by the body, which can also help temper the triglyceride increase that occurs after meals, says Michael Wesley Milks, MD, a cardiologist and assistant professor of clinical medicine at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus. Fiber is found in whole grains and nutrient-rich foods such as fruits and vegetables.

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You Are Cutting Out All Carbs

One common step that’s taken to bring down your triglycerides is to reduce your calorie intake by cutting back on carbohydrates, such as simple carbs found in sodas, juices and sweetened beverages, and refined carbs, which are found in white bread, white pasta and snack products.

This can be a helpful approach: eating too many carbs could contribute to higher triglyceride levels, and cutting back would be one strategy to lower them. However, it is not necessary to cut out all forms of carbs, including those found in whole grains. Whole grains are full of types of fiber and nutrients that work together to benefit your health. Soluble fiber is a type of dietary fiber present in whole grains, vegetables and fruits that slows digestion by attracting water and forming a gel. This process delays the absorption of sugars and fat, softens your stools and promotes regular bowel movements. Together with insoluble fiber, a type of dietary fiber that adds bulk to stools, it can promote fullness and keep you feeling full for longer. In other words, including whole grains as part of your meals and snacks can help regulate your food portion sizes by minimizing your chance of overeating.

You can incorporate more whole grains by having at least half of your grains as whole grains. Try whole-wheat versions of your favorite pastas and other grain products, and make room for whole grains like oats, brown rice, buckwheat, quinoa and barley in your eating pattern.

What Are Triglycerides Anyhow

Triglycerides usually get measured along with cholesterol, but theyre not the same thing. Triglycerides are basically fat. If we eat more than is needed at that moment, our body converts the extra food to fat, which gets transported through the bloodstream for storage, for when it is needed. All good and normal.

But sometimes the level of triglycerides in the blood gets too high, which turns out to be quite a reliable predictor of heart and stroke risk. If your triglycerides are high, youre likely to have other markers of risk, including high blood pressure, high blood sugars, and/or low HDL cholesterol.

Your doctor may or may not mention high triglycerides! Heart disease experts debate whether they actually contribute to clogged arteries, or whether theyre just a canary in the coal mine. For our purposes though, it doesnt matter. The health habits that lower triglycerides generally help with these other problems and cardiovascular risk in general.

Its worth watching triglycerides, because they do tend to respond to changes in health behaviours, like food and movement, more than cholesterol levels do, which is helpful if were looking for non-weight measures of health.

Read Also: Do Triglycerides Go Up When Losing Weight

Eat Fatty Fish Twice Weekly

Fatty fish is well known for its benefits on heart health and ability to lower blood triglycerides.

This is mostly due to its content of omega-3 fatty acids, a type of polyunsaturated fatty acid that is considered essential, meaning you need to get it through your diet.

Both the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and American Heart Association recommend eating two servings of fatty fish per week to reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke .

Whats more, one study showed that eating salmon twice a week significantly decreased blood triglyceride concentration .

Salmon, herring, sardines, tuna, and mackerel are a few types of fish that are especially high in omega-3 fatty acids.

Summary

Fatty fish is high in omega-3 fatty acids. Eating two servings per week may lower triglyceride levels and decrease the risk of heart disease.

You Are Drinking Too Much Alcohol

While some research studies suggest that drinking alcohol, specifically red wine, may provide some health benefits, drinking alcohol excessively causes more harm than good. Alcohol has calories, and adding sweetened beverages and mixers to alcohol, like cola or syrup, can increase the calories even more. Alcohol is processed in the liver and, as with food, any excess calories consumed are stored as fat. Over time, these extra calories can also raise your triglyceride levels. Drinking too much can also put you at risk for unnecessary weight gain, heart and liver diseases, and more.

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Eat Less To Lose Weight

High triglycerides come from regularly eating more calories than your body burns, so eating less overall is one of the best ways to start reining them in.

How much less, exactly? You may want to cut back by 500 to 1,000 calories a day, depending on how many calories youre consuming. Thats enough to help you lose weight, which is key.

Dropping 5 to 10 percent of your body weight is enough to reduce your triglycerides significantly. But definitely get the OK from your doctor before making any major changes to your diet.

Add These Foods To Lower Ldl Cholesterol

Different foods lower cholesterol in various ways. Some deliver soluble fiber, which binds cholesterol and its precursors in the digestive system and drags them out of the body before they get into circulation. Some give you polyunsaturated fats, which directly lower LDL. And some contain plant sterols and stanols, which block the body from absorbing cholesterol.

1. Oats. An easy first step to lowering your cholesterol is having a bowl of oatmeal or cold oat-based cereal like Cheerios for breakfast. It gives you 1 to 2 grams of soluble fiber. Add a banana or some strawberries for another half-gram. Current nutrition guidelines recommend getting 20 to 35 grams of fiber a day, with at least 5 to 10 grams coming from soluble fiber.

2. Barley and other whole grains. Like oats and oat bran, barley and other whole grains can help lower the risk of heart disease, mainly via the soluble fiber they deliver.

3. Beans. Beans are especially rich in soluble fiber. They also take a while for the body to digest, meaning you feel full for longer after a meal. That’s one reason beans are a useful food for folks trying to lose weight. With so many choices from navy and kidney beans to lentils, garbanzos, black-eyed peas, and beyond and so many ways to prepare them, beans are a very versatile food.

4. Eggplant and okra. These two low-calorie vegetables are good sources of soluble fiber.

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Triglyceride Diet Restrictions: Food Items To Limit

Since, the amount of fat molecules in blood is elevated in this situated fat intake should be restricted. Minimal use of cooking oil should be encouraged. Use of vegetable oil, olive oil, coconut oil is adviceable.

In-take if junk foods and deep fried foods should be totally

Complex dairy products like butter, cheese and margerine should be avoided, as the kind of fat present in these products tends to get deposited and may contribute to the prevailing health

In-take of ghee can be allowed, but in very small and/or less quantity .

Whole milk should be avoided. In place toned and/or skim milk should be used.

In-take of animal proteins should be avoided and it should be compensated by in-take of pulses .

In-take of processed meat products such as sausages, bacon, processed meats, hot dogs, salami, etc should always be avoided.

In-take of refined wheat products should be avoided as well.

In-take of desserts and ice cream should be less .

Carbonated beverages, alcoholoic beverages, packaged drinks, energy drinks and fruit juices should be excluded from the daily diet.

What Are Triglycerides And What Is Considered A Healthy Level

Triglycerides are sort of like cholesterol: Both are types of fat found in your blood. But while cholesterol is used to make cells and certain hormones, the job of triglycerides is to store unused calories to give your body energy between meals.

Triglycerides get stored after you eat. If you take in any calories that arent needed for energy right away, theyre converted into triglycerides and transferred to your fat cells for later use.

Eating more calories than you need on the reg can lead to high triglycerides over time, which can up your risk for heart disease. Triglycerides are usually measured along with cholesterol, and numbers over 150 mg/dL are usually considered high.

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Foods That Can Help Lower Triglycerides

According to a 2011 fact sheet from the American Heart Association Trusted Source, people should focus on eating the below foods to help manage their triglyceride levels:

• oily fish, like sardines and salmon
• all vegetables, especially leafy greens, green beans, and butternut squash
• all fruits, especially citrus fruits, and berries
• low fat or fat-free dairy products, such as cheese, yogurt, and milk
• high-fiber whole grains, such as quinoa, barley, and brown rice
• beans, nuts, and seeds, which contain fiber and unsaturated, healthy fats

The AHA also advises people to:

• limit alcohol consumption
• limit added sugars to no more than 10% of their total daily calories
• keep carbohydrates to 5060% or fewer of their total daily calories
• limit dietary fat to 2535% of their total daily calories
• choose unsaturated fats from plant oils, nuts, and seeds over saturated and trans fats found in animal products and processed foods