Low Cholesterol Low Triglyceride Meal Plan

How To Lower Cholesterol And Triglycerides

• Frequently Asked Questions

Triglycerides are a type of lipid, or fat, your body produces to store extra calories and provide energy. Cholesterol is another lipid that circulates in your blood. Your body uses cholesterol to build cells and produce hormones.

Both triglycerides and cholesterol are essential for your health but having levels that are too high puts your health at risk. Living a healthy lifestyle helps to keep your cholesterol and triglyceride levels within a normal range.

This article covers how triglycerides and cholesterol affect your health and how you can lower them naturally.

Luis Alvarez / Getty Images

Food Items You Can Easily Consume To Lower Triglyceride

Legumes : Legumes like beans, peas and lentils can help lower LDL levels and are a good source of plant-based protein.

Nuts, Especially Almonds and Walnuts : Nuts also contain protein. They’re particularly rich in L-arginine, an amino acid that helps make nitric oxide. This, in turn, helps regulate blood pressure

Fatty Fish : Fatty fish contain high levels of omega-3 fatty acids and have been linked to a decreased risk of heart disease and stroke.

Whole Grains, Especially Oats and Barley : Oats: They contain beta-glucan, a type of soluble fiber that helps lower cholesterol. Barley: Is also rich in beta-glucans and can help lower LDL cholesterol.

Fruits and Berries : Fruit also contains bioactive compounds that help prevent heart disease and other chronic diseases due to their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. Eating berries and grapes, which are particularly rich sources of these plant compounds, can help increase HDL cholesterol and lower LDL cholesterol.

Dark Chocolate and Cocoa : Flavonoids in dark chocolate and cocoa can help lower blood pressure and LDL cholesterol while raising HDL cholesterol.

Garlic : Garlic contains allicin and other plant compounds, which may help lower LDL cholesterol and reduce other heart disease risk factors.

Soy Foods : There is some evidence that soy foods can reduce heart disease risk factors, especially in people with high cholesterol.

High Triglycerides Diet: Guidelines And Meal Plans

Disclaimer: Results are not guaranteed*** and may vary from person to person***.

When it comes to heart health, a lot of what we hear about focuses on cholesterol and how that can affect your health. What often gets forgotten, however, is high triglycerides. There is plenty of evidence to show that high triglycerides levels can be a significantly bad thing for your hearts health. In this article, we will take a look at what exactly are high triglycerides levels, which foods to add to your high triglycerides diet, which foods to avoid, and even a high triglycerides diet plan to start you on your way to better heart health. Think of this as a beginners guide to everything about high triglycerides.

Recommended Reading: What Is The Role Of Cholesterol In The Body

Limit Your Sugar Intake

Added sugar is a big part of many peoples diets.

While the American Heart Association recommends consuming no more than 100150 calories of added sugar per day, one study found that the average American eats about 308 calories of added sugar daily .

Added sugar is commonly found in sweets, soft drinks, and fruit juice.

Extra sugar in your diet may be turned into triglycerides, which can lead to an increase in blood triglyceride levels, along with other heart disease risk factors.

A 2020 review that included data on 6,730 people found that those who consumed sugar-sweetened beverages regularly were over 50% more likely to have high triglycerides, compared with those who did not drink them regularly .

Another study found that consuming high amounts of added sugar is also associated with higher blood triglyceride levels in children .

Fortunately, several studies have shown that low carb diets can lead to a decrease in blood triglyceride levels .

Even a simple change such as replacing sugar-sweetened beverages with water could decrease triglycerides in some people .

Summary

Minimizing added sugar in your diet from sugary beverages and sweets can reduce your blood triglyceride levels.

Diet Plan For Lowering Cholesterol And Triglycerides

Diet plan for lowering cholesterol and triglycerides is a healthy diet that is made up of foods that are lower in saturated fats, trans fats, and cholesterol. Your diet plays a critical role in lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels. But it is hard to find out which diet is good for reducing cholesterol and triglycerides. In this article, you will find a complete diet plan for lowering cholesterol and triglycerides.

Don’t Miss: How To Get Cholesterol Down Without Drugs

How Long Does It Take To Lower Triglycerides

Depending on whats causing your high triglyceride levels, you may be able to lower them in just a few days. A night out drinking or eating foods high in sugar can cause a spike in your triglyceride levels. Limiting alcohol and sugar intake can bring your levels back to normal within a few days.

If you have consistently high triglycerides, it may take a few months for them to return to a healthy range. How fast they lower depends on the lifestyle changes, diet, and medications youre taking.

Cholesterol And Triglyceride Lowering Diet Can Prevent Sudden Death

According to doctors from the health information channel According to the E-Med, individuals following a cholesterol and triglyceride lowering diet are less likely to suffer sudden death.

Reducing cholesterol and triglycerides in your blood is possible through dietary changes alone, but advice from a medical professional is always recommended. This is because people who have a high level of cholesterol or triglycerides in their blood or who suffer from hereditary conditions caused by high cholesterol, may need to take medications for a period of time to help bring their levels within a manageable range.

Don’t Miss: Can High Cholesterol Cause Breathing Problems

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.

Puree Fruits And Veggies For Baking

Pureed fruits or vegetables can be used in place of oil in muffin, cookie, cake and snack bar recipes to give your treats an extra healthy boost. For many recipes, use the specified amount of puree instead of oil. Check the mixs package or your cookbooks substitutions page for other conversions. You can:

• Use applesauce in spice muffins or oatmeal cookies.
• Include bananas in breads and muffins.
• Try zucchini in brownies.

Recommended Reading: Is Pork Bad For Your Cholesterol

You May Like: Can High Cholesterol Be Hereditary

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.

What A Diet For Managing High Cholesterol Looks Like

When it comes to maintaining a diet fit for your ticker, the American Heart Associations recommendations, published in December 2019 in Circulation, are to eat a well-balanced diet, one which prioritizes unprocessed foods. This includes eating more whole grains, low-fat or no-fat dairy, fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds using liquid, nontropical plant oils, like olive or sunflower and limiting saturated fats, excess salt, and processed sugar.

While dietary cholesterol doesnt make as much of an impact on blood levels as once thought, its important to note that some people respond more strongly to dietary cholesterol than others, according to Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, which makes it important to talk with your doctor about the best dietary approach for you. Egg lovers can rejoice, though: Assuming you arent highly responsive to dietary cholesterol, its okay to eat up to seven eggs a week.

The reasons for these recommendations are varied, so lets look at why they are so important.

You May Like: What Does Normal Cholesterol Mean

How Much Cholesterol Should I Eat

The thoughts on dietary cholesterol have changed in the last 10 years. In the 2015 to 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the recommendation on cholesterol intake was removed due to lack of evidence. Turns out, experts aren’t convinced that dietary cholesterol has anything to do with the cholesterol in your blood.

But there are some caveats to this: Foods high in cholesterol also tend to be high in saturated fat, and studies show that folks who ate high amounts of both were at higher risk for heart disease, according to a June 2018 review in âNutrientsâ.

Remember the egg debate? Eggs are high in dietary cholesterol, but they are low in saturated fat. The AHA no longer recommends that you limit your dietary cholesterol if you have high numbers, but to limit your saturated fat and trans fat, as these are more likely to make your cholesterol numbers worse.

Related Reading

What Does A Cholesterol

You can think of a cholesterol-lowering diet as a heart-healthy diet. When you get right down to it, thatâs what youâre doing â eating to protect your heart from the damaging effects of cholesterol build-up.

Eating for your heart is rooted in a plant-forward diet rich in fruits, vegetables, heart-healthy fats and whole grains. Not only are these foods high in vitamins and minerals, but they are also rich in fiber.

Fiber has many benefits including improving your cholesterol and blood sugar levels. Fiber is typically classified into two types: soluble and insoluble. Most plant foods contain a mixture of both types of fiber, but soluble fiber â the kind in oats, broccoli, peas and many fruits â grabs hold of cholesterol and pulls it from the body, helping to lower your levels.

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recommends that you get 14 grams of fiber per 1,000 calories in your diet. But there really isnât an upper limit for fiber â as long as you slowly increase it and drink plenty of water to reduce your risk of gastrointestinal discomfort.

You May Like: Supplements To Help Lower Cholesterol And Triglycerides

Diet For Lowering Cholesterol

When it comes to your diet for lowering cholesterol, it can be hard to know how and what to eat. In order to help you as you plan your low fat low cholesterol diet, here are a few things you need to know about eating right to cut back on your cholesterol:

Eat Lots of Lean Proteins As mentioned above, lean protein is the way to go in order to cut back on your cholesterol. However, if you want to enjoy the food you eat, you cant just eat one kind of protein for the rest of your life . It is important that you find a number of recipes with all kinds of lean proteins, including fish, beans, chicken, turkey, lentils, garbanzos, and egg whites. Changing up your meal plan will help you to enjoy your low fat low cholesterol diet much more.

Eat Food Regularly One of the main reasons that you end up eating more than you should is due to the fact that you think you are hungry when really you arent. If you want to combat your bodys desire to eat food when you really dont need it, try and eat smaller meals every 3 or 4 hours. If you eat five small meals a day, you are less likely to be hungry and more likely to be careful with what you eat.

Eat Less Fat Anyone who has learned anything about cholesterol knows that it is directly related to fat, and eating more fat means higher cholesterol. However, on the flip side, eating less fat means less cholesterol in your body, so it is important to cut back your fat consumption in order to eliminate all the bad stuff.

How A Meal Kit Can Help

Meal kits can cut down on the stress of shopping, by sending you all of the ingredients for a meal, in the exact amounts you need, along with instructions on how to cook it. This cuts down on the effort of planning and reduces food waste, while also encouraging you to try new recipes.

This is also a way to ease into healthier habits, whether its eating more unprocessed foods or cooking more often. Its not about being perfect its about doing a little better and a little better, says Kennedy.

Meal kits can also serve as a base, with room for altering them to suit your particular needs. There is so much flexibility with a meal kit, Kennedy says. You can look for places to add in vegetables, serve it with a side of fruit, or add in beans to a salad or to a dish. You can also swap in whole grains for white grains. Dont be too literal, Kennedy says.

You May Like: Is Feta Cheese High In Cholesterol

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

Use Liquid Vegetable Oils In Place Of Solid Fats

Liquid vegetable oils such as canola, safflower, sunflower, soybean and olive oil can often be used instead of solid fats, such as butter, lard or shortening. If you must use margarine, try the soft or liquid kind.

Use a little liquid oil to:

• Pan-fry fish and poultry.
• Make cream sauces and soups using low-fat or fat-free milk.
• Add to whipped or scalloped potatoes using low-fat or fat-free milk.
• Brown rice for Spanish, curried or stir-fried rice.
• Cook dehydrated potatoes and other prepared foods that call for fat to be added.
• Make pancakes or waffles.

Don’t Miss: How To Make Eggplant Water To Lower Cholesterol

Low Cholesterol Diet Plan For Beginners

In this 7-day plan for beginners, we map out a week of healthy meals and snacks that will help lower your cholesterol. To keep it simple, we meal-prep breakfast and lunch so you can grab-and-go plus we focus on simple recipes without lengthy ingredient lists. Bonusyou’ll see several one-pot and sheet-pan dinners which means less time spent on cleanup. To help lower cholesterol, we include plenty of fiberan important nutrient for both gut and heart healthby focusing on fruits and vegetables, whole grains and legumes while limiting cholesterol-raising saturated fat and simple carbohydrates.

See More:High Cholesterol Diet Guidelines

Busy Lifestyles Are The Most Common Reasons For High Cholesterol And Triglyceride Levels

If you are like me and like to pack your day full of activities or if you are simply trying to balance a work and home life, watching your diet is often the last thing on your mind.

Therefore, making a healthy meal for yourself and even the family is often impossible. Processed and other fast foods are often high in the fats associated with increasing cholesterol and triglycerides.

To try and tackle this problem, I have started doing a simple menu plan. That is deciding for the week what foods will best suit my cholesterol and triglyceride lowering diet and ensuring I have the ingredients ready to go.

The idea of creating a menu plan is, the days you know you are going to be pressed for time you and organise a simple meal that is still healthy. The meals that require more preparation or cooking time, I save for the days I know I can commit the time.

• Day one Poached salmon, new potatoes and carrots
• Day two Pasta with tomato and basil sauce
• Day three Vegetable curry with rice
• Day four Chicken salad
• Day five Mackerel, rice and poached eggs

The weekend I would leave to chance, although I do treat myself to a small Chinese takeaway and a half-a-glass of red wine on a Saturday evening.

You May Like: Do Beets Lower Your Cholesterol

The Lifestyle And Macrobiotic Diet Food Pyramid

The macrobiotic diet food pyramid represents the importance of finding structure, daily habits, and harmony to improve stress management, mental health, and physical health. With this in mind, here is a sample macrobiotic diet meal plan:

Breakfast: Oatmeal & Steamed GreensDinner: Pasta Primavera & Salad

Dont Miss: What Is A Safe Cholesterol Level Range