Lowering triglycerides is an important part of reducing your risk of developing heart disease. High levels of these dangerous substances in the bloodstream are a precursor to coronary blockage, and as such you should learn how to reduce their buildup to avoid serious heart problems in the future.
What are triglycerides?
Triglycerides are a scientific term for fatty deposits stored in your body. Following is a brief explanation of how they are formed:
Your body transforms the carbohydrates you eat into glucose to be used for energy by your cells. Once the cells have what they need, the excess glucose is sent back to your liver and converted to glycogen. Glycogen can then be stored in your muscles. (Bodybuilders can eat more carbs and be able to store them since their muscles are larger than those of an average person.)
Once you’ve reached your capacity of glycogen, excess glycogen is sent back to your liver again, where it becomes triglycerides, which are stored as fat. Your body has endless storage space for this fat, as we all know.
Now some of these triglycerides are not stored as fat, but remain in your blood stream, which is where the problem lies. Excess levels of triglycerides thicken your blood, making it sludgy, which increases the possibility of clotting and blockage which could eventually lead to a heart attack or stroke. This is why it is so important to keep your levels as low as possible.
How do you keep triglyceride levels down?
Many doctors focus too much on cholesterol, and not enough on triglycerides. However if you have high cholesterol AND high triglycerides, your chances of developing heart disease go up exponentially. As such, both indicators must be paid close attention to.
As we mentioned above, these levels are directly influenced by what you eat. Anything that increases blood glucose will potentially increase triglycerides, so you should lower your intake of anything that is converted to glucose in the body.
The most important step to take is to lower your carbohydrate intake. All of the most popular diets today – Atkins, South Beach, Zone, etc. are all based on a low carbohydrate diet, because it is an increase in carbs that triggers the conversion of glucose to triglycerides (fats). The low carbohydrate diet is being recommended by more and more doctors and nutritionists as science is proving the carbohydrate fat relationship outlined above.
Excess sugar should also be avoided, as it is converted to glucose and in turn triglycerides much the same way as carbohydrates are.
Many of the healthy heart diet tips we discuss can help you reduce both triglyceride and cholesterol levels, so you should browse this section as well.
Are there specific nutrients for lowering triglycerides?
Many of the nutrients for lowering cholesterol naturally will help with triglyceride levels as well.
According to a publication by P.K. Reissell’s group at Harvard in 1966, it was clearly established that Omega 3 fatty acids and Vitamin C, combined with a low carbohydrate diet, can dramatically reduce your triglyceride levels. Omega 3 fatty acids can help with cholesterol also.
Take a look at some more specific nutrients for lowering triglycerides below.
If triglycerides are essentially fat, shouldn’t you avoid fat in your diet too?
In a word, NO! Natural animal fats found in eggs and butter are actually necessary – your body needs dietary fats to perform many functions. You should however avoid the bad kinds of fat – transfats and hydrogenated oils found in margarine, processed and refined foods and fast food. These transfats are chemically altered substances, and as such your body does not know how to handle them properly. They are foreign to the body and therefore dangerous to your health.
So, in summary, following a no-fat diet is dangerous. Your body needs good fat in certain quantities each and every day. What you want to avoid is the bad fats, the trans and hydrogenated fats and oils which are artificially processed to make foods last longer. (That’s why that fast food burger that’s been sitting there for weeks tastes fresh!)
Lowering Triglycerides – Get your levels checked regularly
Make sure you get your triglyceride levels checked as part of your next blood test. Whether or not your levels are high, you should do your part to keep them down, following the tips on this page.
The normal level of triglycerides in your blood should be up to 199mg/dL. This is the level in the average healthy person. The optimal level in your blood would be under 100mg/dL.
A triglyceride test along with the three other blood tests we discuss on this site will indicate whether or not you are at risk of developing heart disease.
Low Triglyceride Diet – Important Nutrients for Lowering Fatty Deposits
Following are some of the important dietary supplements for lowering your levels:
Fish Oil – By now you’ve certainly heard about the importance of Omega 3 fatty acids in promoting heart health. Doctors and nutritionists have recommended Omega 3’s for years, and recently fish oil has been the most recommended source for the essential Omega 3 fatty acids DHA and EPA. These two fatty acids are the most readily absorbed by the body (much more so than the ALA found in flax seed oil).
Read more about fish oil here.
Guggulipid Extract – an ancient herb from India recently shown to lower triglyceride levels as well as reduce cholesterol, two major risk factors for heart disease.
Tumeric Extract – much evidence points to the fact that tumeric may lower triglyceride and cholesterol levels, in addition to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
Green Tea Extract – green tea is widely used for many medicinal purposes, and has been shown to reduce triglycerides as well as LDL cholesterol, and increase HDL (good) cholesterol. Green tea also has antioxidants that can prevent heart disease, cancer and other illnesses.
Featured Triglyceride Lowering Supplement
We have discovered a high quality fish oil supplement that we have been taking ourselves for over ten years now. It contains the highest levels of DHA and EPA, two of the most therapeutic Omega-3 fatty acids.
Unlike most fish oil supplements, this supplement contains molecularly distilled fish oil esters, which is a purified form that is most readily absorbed in the body. It is also free of any contaminants because it is harvested from pristine, clean waters.
Take a look at this Omega 3 DHA Fish Oil and see how it may help lower triglycerides and promote a healthy heart today.