Reducing your triglyceride level is the main goal of the triglycerides diet. However, you will certainly achieve other wonderful health benefits when you eat a diet to lower triglycerides. Let us look at the features of a high triglyceride diet.
Avoid Sugar to Reduce Triglycerides
The quickest and easiest way to lowering your triglyceride level is to stop eating sugar. Sugar is the worst simple carb for you as it increases your triglycerides. Avoid anything that contains refined sugar and you are well on your way to lower triglycerides.
Sources of Sugar
Sources of sugar you need to avoid are:
- Processed foods
- Sweetened breakfast cereals
- Bakery, such as donuts, muffins, cookies
- Candy
- Soda
- Table sugar
- Syrups
- Power-drinks and energy-drinks
Read the Labels for Sugar Sources
Here are some other names for the sugar you need to watch for:
| barley malt | beet sugar | brown sugar |
| buttered syrup | cane-juice crystals | cane sugar |
| caramel | carob syrup | corn syrup |
| corn syrup solids | date sugar | dextran |
| dextrose | diatase | diastatic malt |
| ethyl maltol | fructose | fruit juice |
| fruit juice concentrate | glucose | glucose solids |
| golden sugar | golden syrup | grape sugar |
| high-fructose corn syrup | honey | invert sugar |
| lactose | malt syrup | maltodextrin |
| maltose | mannitol | molasses |
| raw sugar | refiner’s syrup | sorbitol |
| sorghum syrup | sucrose | turbinado sugar |
| yellow sugar |
Carbohydrates on the Triglycerides Diet
When it comes to carbohydrates, the best are always the complex carbohydrates. This includes whole-grain breads and cereals, brown rice, and, in limited amounts, starchy vegetables such as sweet potatoes, corn and peas. Legumes or beans are also encouraged.
Take care not to avoid fruits or other vegetables. These are foods that contain superior nutrition and phytochemicals that work wonders in promoting health. Actually, whole, fresh fruits and vegetables should be the mainstay of anyone’s diet.
Fats on the Triglycerides Diet
The kinds of fats you should not eat are the saturated fats and trans fats. These are the fats you will find in animal products and processed foods.
Instead, opt for poly-unsaturated fats and Omega-3 fats such as those found in olive and other vegetable oils and in fish. A word of caution- even if it is a healthy fat, keep your total fat intake to 30% or less in your diet.
Triglycerides Diet and Protein
Even though the best foods you can eat are the fruits and vegetables, you don’t need to be vegetarian. Aim for the leanest sources of animal protein and in limited amounts.
If you are going to eat animal products, the best are from animals that have been grass-fed. Grass-fed beef, poultry and pork contain more of the ‘good’ fat and also contain health-promoting antioxidants.
Alcohol and Triglycerides
When it comes to maintaining a normal triglyceride level, there are several issues with alcohol. First, alcohol contains a lot of excess calories, which, if not burned off, convert to triglycerides and gets stored as fat. And, actually, a medical study done in 2003 in Switzerland showed that alcohol slows down fat metabolism by more than 30%.
Another problem with alcohol is that it interferes with the liver’s processing of triglycerides and raises the level. Alcohol and high triglycerides do not mix!
Excess Calories Increase Triglyceride Levels
One of the most important things you need to know is that when you eat too many calories- more calories than you are burning off, the extra calories are converted into triglycerides and stored in your body. So, to keep your triglyceride level low, your triglycerides diet needs to be low in calories.
