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What Is The Best Diet To Lower Triglycerides

Increase Your Intake Of Unsaturated Fats

A keto diet improves elevated triglycerides

Studies show that monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats can reduce blood triglyceride levels, especially when theyre replacing carbs in your diet .

Monounsaturated fats are found in foods like olive oil, nuts, and avocados. Polyunsaturated fats are present in vegetable oils and fatty fish, as well as nuts and seeds such as walnuts, flaxseeds, and chia seeds.

A 2019 review of 27 studies reported that while olive oil consumption does decrease triglycerides levels, it does so significantly less than other types of plant oil .

One older study analyzed the diets of 452 adults in a specific population of Indigenous people in Alaska over the previous 24 hours.

It found that saturated fat intake was associated with increased blood triglycerides, while polyunsaturated fat intake was associated with lower triglyceride levels .

To maximize the triglyceride-lowering benefits of unsaturated fats, pick a heart-healthy fat like olive oil and use it to replace other types of fat in your diet, such as trans fats or highly processed vegetable oils .

Summary

Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats can decrease blood triglyceride levels, especially when theyre consumed in place of other fats.

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.

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.

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Putting Together A Low Cholesterol Diet

When it comes to investing money, experts recommend creating a portfolio of diverse investments instead of putting all your eggs in one basket. The same holds true for eating your way to lower cholesterol. Adding several foods to lower cholesterol in different ways should work better than focusing on one or two.

A largely vegetarian “dietary portfolio of cholesterol-lowering foods” substantially lowers LDL, triglycerides, and blood pressure. The key dietary components are plenty of fruits and vegetables, whole grains instead of highly refined ones, and protein mostly from plants. Add margarine enriched with plant sterols oats, barley, psyllium, okra, and eggplant, all rich in soluble fiber soy protein and whole almonds.

Of course, shifting to a cholesterol-lowering diet takes more attention than popping a daily statin. It means expanding the variety of foods you usually put in your shopping cart and getting used to new textures and flavors. But it’s a “natural” way to lower cholesterol, and it avoids the risk of muscle problems and other side effects that plague some people who take statins.

Just as important, a diet that is heavy on fruits, vegetables, beans, and nuts is good for the body in ways beyond lowering cholesterol. It keeps blood pressure in check. It helps arteries stay flexible and responsive. It’s good for bones and digestive health, for vision and mental health.

Eat More Medium Chain Triglycerides

Lifestyle and Dietary Choices that can Help Lower Triglyceride Levels ...

Yes, you read that correctly. To improve health and triglyceride levels, you should consume more triglycerides. But make sure they are the medium-chain kind of triglyceride.

MCTs are different from the long chain triglycerides that we commonly find in dairy and meat because they skip the normal process of fat digestion and go straight to the liver. In the liver, the MCTs are often converted into ketones for fuel.

For this reason, many studies have found MCTs to increase weight loss when compared to other healthy fats like olive oil. Believe it or not, MCTs also have been found to decrease triglycerides more than olive oil as well.

Coconut oil is the best natural source of MCTs . However, if you need an unmistakable energy boost that eliminates your cravings right away, then supplement with pure MCT oil. Blend it into your morning coffee or keto pumpkin spice latte or use it as the oil for your salad dressings.

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Eating Foods With A Low Gi

The glycemic index indicates how much a specific food is likely to increase your blood sugar levels.

For example, oats have a low GI, but white bread has a high GI and is more likely to lead to a big spike in your blood sugar.

Research suggests that eating a low glycemic diet is associated with lower triglycerides.

What Are The Best Foods To Eat To Lower Triglycerides

  • What Are the Best Foods to Eat to Lower Triglycerides? Center
  • Triglycerides are a kind of fat that travels in the blood. You may get some triglycerides from food, and some may be made by your body. Like cholesterol, triglycerides are necessary for life, but if theyre present at high levels, they can be bad for your health.

    If you have high triglycerides, your cholesterol levels may be high too. This combination raises your risk of heart disease. Experts aren’t sure if high triglycerides alone are bad for your heart, but some studies suggest they are.

    If your triglyceride levels are very high, you may also be at risk of harming your pancreas. Changes in lifestyle can lower triglycerides, and eating triglyceride-friendly meals and snacks could help too.

    Read Also: What Are The Side Effects Of Taking Statins For Cholesterol

    Foods To Lower Triglycerides

  • Oats – Oats are rich in fibre. Fibre-rich food items take more time to digest, thus preventing a spike of blood sugar levels and causing less release of triglycerides, and forming an important part of the triglyceride diet.
  • Cauliflower- Cauliflower is rich in fibre and contains less carbs. Hence can be added to the diet liberally.
  • Blueberries- Blueberries contain less sugar, more fibre and are full of antioxidants. You can use it as topping for oatmeal, yoghurt, or make a smoothie.
  • Spinach- Spinach is a good source of vitamins and is also counted among the foods to reduce triglycerides. You can add it to stews, salads, and egg omelette preparation.
  • Bananas- Bananas can be a great substitute to satisfy your sugar cravings, and it also contains potassium – an important mineral.
  • Strawberries- Many people like strawberries because of its taste, but do you know that it has nutritional value and can even lower triglycerides?
  • Broccoli- Broccoli is yet another green vegetable that can lower triglyceride levels. You can have it by simply roasting it or adding it to soups.
  • Cabbage- It is included under cruciferous vegetables that reduce triglycerides and is rich in vitamin K. You can saute it with a few spices and enjoy the delicious and nutritious food.
  • Salmon- Salmon is fish rich in omega-3 fats. It helps manage triglycerides and is an excellent source of good protein.
  • Nuts- Nuts contain monounsaturated fats, fibre and omega-three fatty acids that manage triglyceride levels.
  • Foods That Lower Triglycerides

    Nutrition Tips : Diet to Lower Triglycerides

    Your diet is the main contributor to your overall triglyceride levels, with high calorie, high-fat foods being the main culprits. Eating in excess amounts contributes to this problem as well, as when you take in more calories than you need, the body changes those calories into triglycerides, getting stored as fat. Following some of these tips can help you choose calories wiser and help lower your triglyceride levels:

    • Reduce saturated fats and trans fats. These are commonly found in animal products, fast food, baked goods, and other prepackaged and processed foods
    • Use healthy mono- and poly-unsaturated fats. Found in olive or canola cooking oil
    • Eat more fruits and vegetables. Getting the majority of your calories from these sources make it satisfies hunger and keeps you away from unhealthy alternatives
    • Alcohol in moderation. May be full of empty calories
    • Avoid refined sugars. Typically found in processed foods
    • Eat fish protein once or twice a week. Omega-3 fatty acids found in fish can help lower triglyceride levels
    • Eat plenty of fiber. Fiber increases satiety, and also aid in decreases cholesterol absorption in the gut
    • Limit total dietary cholesterol to 200mg per day

    The following is a list of well-known natural foods that lower triglycerides:

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    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.

    What Are Triglycerides And Why Are They Important

    “Triglycerides are a type of blood lipid and they’re made up of free fatty acids. They’re stored in your body fat, but you’ll also find them in your blood,” says nutritionist Jessica Ash, CNC, HHC, FDN-P and founder of Jessica Ash Wellness. “And because your liver makes them, they’re also found in your liver and then your tissues. Our body gets triglycerides either from the food that you eat or from the body it manufactures triglycerides in the liver.”

    “It’s important to know that triglycerides, like cholesterol, are normally protective . But triglycerides are used for energy, whereas cholesterol is used for steroid hormone production,” Ash explains. “And our muscles are specifically what like to uptake fatty acids or triglycerides. So they’re fatty acids that the body usually uses for energy.”

    Your body needs energy from food to function. But excess energy, especially from sources like simple carbohydrates, can be stored as triglycerides, which can create issues if your triglyceride levels are elevated above the normal range. According to the Mayo Clinic, if your triglycerides are over 150 mg/dL, then you’re at a greater risk for developing heart disease.

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    Tips To Reduce Fat In The Diet:

    • Try steaming, poaching, boiling or grilling instead of roasting and frying. If you do fry, use a non-stick pan and you may not need to use any fat or oil at all. Spray oils are a good way of reducing the amount of fat needed.
    • Buy lean meats and avoid processed meats . Take the skin off poultry and remove visible fat from the meat before you start cooking.
    • Use low-fat/fat-free products where available e.g. skimmed rather than semi-skimmed or whole milk 0% fat yoghurts, low-fat spreads rather than margarine or butter .
    • Avoid all cheese with the exception of extra low fat cream cheese and cottage cheese. There is also a 3% fat hard cheese available in supermarkets which can be used.
    • Avoid or choose much smaller portion sizes of fatty foods such as crisps, nuts, pastry, cakes, biscuits, cream, tinned meats, Yorkshire puddings, dumplings and gravy made with meat juices.
    • When having potatoes choose boiled, mashed or jacket rather than roast or chipped.
    The table below gives some indications of low and higher fat food options:

    Food group
    Higher fat Lemon curd, peanut butter Lower fat options Sugar, honey, jam, golden syrup, marmalade

    For low fat recipe ideas please seewww.heartuk.org.uk

    If you do not have internet access please ask your dietitian for more information.

    2)Omega-3 fatty acids

    Omega-3 fatty acids, which are found in fish oils, can have a beneficial effect on reducing triglyceride levels.

    Type of Fish
    Type of Fish Mackerel, smoked Fat per 100g 30.9

    4) Alcohol

    Sugar Can Become Your New Fat

    High Triglycerides Diet : The Perfect Guide on Lowering Triglycerides ...

    It would only make sense for fats to increase triglycerides more than carbs, but the science shows us that just the opposite occurs.

    In one study, people with high triglycerides and normal triglycerides were put on a 15% fat, whole-food diet after eating a high-fat diet . After only one meal of the low-fat diet, their triglyceride levels were elevated for higher and longer than during the high-fat diet.

    Fasting triglyceride concentrations also increased by 60% and the production of atherogenic LDL cholesterol increased as well. This occurred in people with normal and high triglycerides in response to a whole-food based low-fat diet.

    Do these findings mean that we should avoid carbs if we want to reduce our triglycerides?

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    Change Your Diet To Reduce Triglycerides

    Follow these dietary guidelines to reduce your triglycerides:

    • Choose unsaturated fats Reduce your intake of saturated fats by eating less red meat and less full-fat dairy.
    • Reduce total fat intake Get no more than 30 percent of your calories from fat.
    • Eat less sugar Cut down on table sugar, syrup, sweets, and sugary drinks.
    • Go for complex carbohydrates Substitute whole grains for refined grains like white bread and white rice.
    • Cut back on alcohol If you drink, talk to your doctor about safe amounts.

    What Are Triglycerides And What Raises Them

    Everyone consumes triglycerides as part of their diet. They circulate in your bloodstream, similar to cholesterol, and pair with proteins to form lipoproteins.

    These lipoproteins carry triglycerides to your tissues, where they are either used for energy straight away or stored as fat for later.

    Triglyceride levels can be measured by a simple blood test. According to the American Heart Association , fasting levels those taken when you havent eaten should be below 150 mg/dl and post-meal levels below 200 mg/dl .

    Many lifestyle factors can raise your fasting triglyceride levels, such as a diet high in refined carbohydrates and saturated fats, a lack of physical activity, drinking too much alcohol, and smoking. Pregnancy and menopause can also have an effect.

    Postprandial lipaemia is the scientific name for the rise in triglycerides that happens after eating. The peak in triglyceride levels is around 45 hours after eating, and the level should return to baseline around 8 hours after eating.

    Measuring triglyceride levels within a 4-hour period after a meal is a strong predictor of your risk of heart disease, even if your fasting triglycerides are within a healthy range.

    That means post-meal triglycerides can act as an early warning system for your risk of heart disease.

    Your blood fat control indicates how well you can clear triglycerides from your blood in other words, how well youre able to handle high-fat foods.

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    How Quickly Can I Lower My Cholesterol

    Your cholesterol levels may lower as quickly as a few weeks to a few months, depending on your treatment plan.

    If your levels are very high, your healthcare provider may recommend taking medications at the start of your treatment plan. This may help lower your cholesterol levels more quickly. The sooner you can lower your bad cholesterol levels, the sooner you can lower your risk for plaques to form.

    You can also lower your cholesterol through lifestyle and diet changes alone, but it may take three to six months to see results. Talk with your healthcare provider to figure out the best treatment plan for you.

    The Best Diet For Lowering Triglycerides: A Mediterranean

    Diet to Lower Triglycerides

    Throughout the research on lowering triglycerides, two trends emerge. The first is that limiting carbohydrates and increasing fat consumption leads to lower triglyceride levels. The second is that polyunsaturated fats decrease triglycerides more than any other fat.

    If we combine these two trends together, we come out with a Mediterranean-style ketogenic diet that restricts carbohydrates more than any other diet and places emphasis on omega-3 rich fish like sardines and salmon and polyunsaturated fat rich nuts and olive oil.

    The Mediterranean-style Ketogenic Diet will also provide a healthier amount of vegetables, fiber, and protein than a typical Americans diet, which further improves triglyceride levels.

    Not sure what a Mediterranean-style Ketogenic meal would look like? Here are some delicious examples:

    Or have a can of sardines on a delicious Oven Roasted Caprese Salad.

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