Triglycerides

[Purron]

DH just had a complete check up. His triglycerides are in the high range. Doc says he has to cut down on the fatty and high cholesteral foods. I'm looking for food suggestions to help get his numbers down. Looks like eggs and bacon will be a rare treat.

Today I bought some Smart Balance "buttery spread", low fat mayo, low fat salad dressing, catfish fillets, and ground turkey to make some chili. Spent a lot of time reading labels at the grocery store.

Any tasty, low fat/cholesterol (and frugal of course!) food suggestions you have would be most welcome. DH is not picky, but does love a nice steak once in a while and really loves his bacon/eggs/grits breakfast on the weekend. He also loves veggies and we have salad almost every day. This is good for me too since my levels are borderline high.

Thanks

 

[rescueme]

Do you take fish oil caps?...

 

[Purron]

Do you take fish oil caps?...

Yes, we do.

 

[Dawg52]

Mine improved when I added Mevacor to my diet.

 

[Khan]

Isn't there some evidence that a diet high in refined carbs can lead to high triglycerides?

 

[Purron]

Isn't there some evidence that a diet high in refined carbs can lead to high triglycerides?

Not sure. We don't eat much in the way of refined carbs, but it would be good to know if it's something to watch out for.

 

[tmm99]

Isn't there some evidence that a diet high in refined carbs can lead to high triglycerides?

That's what I understand too. Sweets are really bad as well as too much starchy food (potatoes, rice, wheat - whole wheat or white - which all turns to sugar).

From what I know, fats have nothing to do with it, although as many know, some say the opposite.

Personally, I would reduce the amount of starchy food I eat, eliminate sweets/any kind of sweeteners, eat small amount of whole fruit, eat tons of leafy (or low-carb) veggies (raw and cooked) and eat butter/bacon, etc, as before. But that's just me.

 

[Rambler]

Isn't there some evidence that a diet high in refined carbs can lead to high triglycerides?

Yes, they do, and not only refined carbs. I would be willing to bet that if total carbs went down by a third to a half, and that if those that remained were mainly fruits, veggies and whole grains (no more white bread, potatoes, or sugar sweetened drinks...at all), the tri-glys would come down quite a bit. Mine did. YMMV. Another tip: don't drink your carbs. If he is a big beer drinker, cut back. Again, no sugar sweetened drinks. Eat an orange instead of drinking the juice...same for apples. Good luck.

R

 

[ERD50]

I'm not convinced that any of that 'low fat' stuff is really any better for you. They just fill it with other stuff to give it some (bad, IMO) taste.

I thought that the amount of cholesterol in the food you eat has very little to do with blood cholesterol levels? That was 'old school thinking'? Each person metabolizes the cholesterol in different ways, and I think that has little to do with how much is consumed.

I really don't know what to think in all this, but I limit refined carbs, because I see nothing that favors them (and I can easily limit them). So outside of that, I eat a diverse diet, and keep telling myself to exercise more .

-ERD50

 

[haha]

DH just had a complete check up. His triglycerides are in the high range. Doc says he has to cut down on the fatty and high cholesteral foods. I'm looking for food suggestions to help get his numbers down. Looks like eggs and bacon will be a rare treat.

I would research carefully, and perhaps experiment with his own reactions to different foods. My brother had very high triglycerides, 500+. He went on a very low carb diet and his are now around 50. I eat fat all day long, but not much carbs, and my last triglyceride result was 21.

Ha

 

[Purron]

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I would research carefully, and perhaps experiment with his own reactions to different foods. My brother had very high triglycerides, 500+. He went on a very low carb diet and his are now around 50. I eat fat all day long, but not much carbs, and my last triglyceride result was 21.

Ha

Isn't this similiar to the diet with high fat/meat and low carbs Atkins came up with?

 

[Tigger]

Fructose seems to increase triglycerides. Maybe some products he eats are particularly rich in fructose?
How Does Fructose Affect Triglyceride and Cholesterol Levels?

They put HCFS in everything now. Certain yoghurts, certain breads... I'm trying to check the ingredients of what I buy and it's very depressing.

 

[Purron]

Fructose seems to increase triglycerides. Maybe some products he eats are particularly rich in fructose?
How Does Fructose Affect Triglyceride and Cholesterol Levels?

They put HCFS in everything now. Certain yoghurts, certain breads... I'm trying to check the ingredients of what I buy and it's very depressing.

Yeah Tigger, I'm already on the anti fructose bandwagon. Avoid it like the plague. Bad stuff fur sure.

Right now, I'm eyeing the healthy heaping portion of Fancy Feast I just served the cats and am thinking it might be pretty heathy stuff - low fat, low carb, high protein and no HCFS. What do they know I don't know

 

[REWahoo]

Right now, I'm eyeing the healthy heaping portion of Fancy Feast I just served the cats and am thinking it might be pretty heathy stuff - low fat, low carb, high protein and no HCFS. What do they know I don't know

You'll get hairballs...

 

[haha]

Isn't this similiar to the diet with high fat/meat and low carbs Atkins came up with?

Yes, though I lean more to the paleo-diet end and do more fresh meat and fish than bacon, ham, etc. VLC though, I think no more than 50gm or so of carb on a normal day. I use a food scale for most veggies and fruits, and last week was the first time I have eaten potato in almost 15 years. And that was probably less than one small new potato, and in a restaurant and too good to give up.

My diet feeling goes like this- it is obvious that mainstream medicine doesn't have anything useful to day about this. Statins do lower LDL and total chloesterol, but most of the non pharmacological interventions suggested by MDs do diddly at best. So I am not taking much chance to just ignore what they say. I read a lot of papers, and I pay attention to my lab results. I don't know of many 69 year olds with triglycerides of 20mg/dl, and I think all of them are low carbers.

I mentioned my brother. In 1986 I visited him in Bradenton FL. They had moved down from Minneapolis, and he was going wild on fresh orange juice and grapefruit juice. He was diabetic and "controlled" with several oral meds. He told me his triglycerides, the number was sky high. I said 500+, but it may have been over 1000. I was aware of the fructose connection from reading John Yudkin an English cardiologist whose fructose theories were briefly popular in the 60s, before they were overrun by the cholesterol bus. So I told him to ditch the juice. Very shortly his readings were cut by 2/3. In recent years he has gone VLC, and after passing out a few times from his oral diabetic meds causing hypoglycemia _ (25 mg/dl on one occasion at a Ft. Worth hospital) he got a new clever woman doctor who took him completely off meds. On his current diet, he is for practical purposes no longer diabetic, and his triglycerides are low although he would go sky high if he ate what most people eat.

To my way of thinking, the only downside of this sort of diet is social- some people kind of resent it when you pass on their special Black Forest cake.

Ha

 

[Sue J]

I switched to Egg Beaters or my store brand equivalent. I kind of got used to them and use them for scrambled eggs and omelets or for anything that would need beaten eggs.

Ask the dr about niacin, it's supposed to be good for cholesterol and triglycerides. I take Rx Niaspan ER but when I run out I'm going to try the OTC Niacin slow release. We have a new insurance plan with a high Rx deductible. Niacin is known for having a side effect of flushing (rapid, tingly hot flash) and the Rx ER version is an extended release that's supposed to prevent that. I take an aspirin 30 minutes before the Niaspan ER at night and only had the flushing happen once. Quite unique and if I hadn't known what it was I probably would have been worried.

Niacin slow release OTC is very inexpensive if the dr is ok with it.

 

[Nords]

You'll get hairballs...

But with a soft & shiny coat...

 

[walkinwood]

Alcohol also leads to high triglycerides. If he had a couple of drinks the day before, it may have affected his test.
Exercise will help reduce it.

 

[Purron]

My diet feeling goes like this- it is obvious that mainstream medicine doesn't have anything useful to day about this. Statins do lower LDL and total chloesterol, but most of the non pharmacological interventions suggested by MDs do diddly at best. So I am not taking much chance to just ignore what they say. I read a lot of papers, and I pay attention to my lab results. I don't know of many 69 year olds with triglycerides of 20mg/dl, and I think all of them are low carbers.

Ha

Wow. I'm impressed. I hadn't thought about fruit juice - we both drink a lot of that. Just curious, what's your typical breakfast/lunch/dinner menu? Also, I'm guessing you avoid alcoholic drinks to keep your numbers this low.

 

[braumeister]

Alcohol also leads to high triglycerides. If he had a couple of drinks the day before, it may have affected his test.
Exercise will help reduce it.

Actually, the jury is still out on that. For example:
Does Alcohol Improve Triglyceride Levels?

 

[Dawg52]

Actually, the jury is still out on that. For example:
Does Alcohol Improve Triglyceride Levels?

I stopped reading the article at this point. Good enough for me.

However, observational epidemiological studies, small clinical trials, and meta-analysis of these studies show little if any association between alcohol intake and triglyceride levels and even show benefit from alcohol consumption on cardiovascular risk in patients with and without diabetes.

 

[haha]

Wow. I'm impressed. I hadn't thought about fruit juice - we both drink a lot of that. Just curious, what's your typical breakfast/lunch/dinner menu? Also, I'm guessing you avoid alcoholic drinks to keep your numbers this low.

I drink wine and sometimes liquor, no beer. For the rest, just imagine what you eat without any bread or wheat or rice or corn other grain products, no sugar or sweets, modest amount fruit, and only berries and occasional small servings of citrus, very rare to no potato, rare roots such as sweet potato, no corn, lots of greens, green beans, spinach, salad, some tomato and avocado. Stuffed peppers and chiles, eggplant,etc. It is easy to find out which veggies are low carb.Then add more butter, olive oil, and cream than you probably eat, and as much eggs, beef, lamb, chicken fish and shellfish as you have appetite for.

I never have juice except, mostly in football season, a Bloody Mary. (On the west coast, most games from the east and midwest are morning TV.) If I want another, the second one is just the vodka.

Modest amount of full fat Greek yogurt-maybe 1/3 to 1/2 cup/day, some tree nuts and a bit of peanut butter.

My breakfast this morning is a lot of sauteed spinach with a poached egg on top. Some mornings it will be fish and eggs, occ. steak or a burger and eggs, often 2 egg omelet with spinach, cheese and onion. Yesterday lunch was raw oysters and steamed clams, supper was salad and sauteed mixed green beans with a bit of cheese melted on top. Today I am making a ground lamb curry and green beans for my main meal. Whenever I can I use grass fed meat and always or almost always wild fish.

Ha

 

[Purron]

Thanks for sharing Ha. Actually, we include many of the items you eat in our diet, except - as you guessed - bread, potatoes, corn and rice. We eat a lot of salads, chicken, beef and fish. I'm also a big believer in using olive oil. I'll look into the possible benefits of lowering carbs for sure.

 

[walkinwood]

Actually, the jury is still out on that. For example:
Does Alcohol Improve Triglyceride Levels?

Thanks for the link. It is so tough to keep track of what effect various foods and drinks have on your system!

 

[audreyh1]

Wow. I'm impressed. I hadn't thought about fruit juice - we both drink a lot of that. Just curious, what's your typical breakfast/lunch/dinner menu? Also, I'm guessing you avoid alcoholic drinks to keep your numbers this low.

Yeah - you really have to watch the sugary content of what you drink. Fruit juice is just as bad as soda in this regard. Best to get your fruit nutrients from whole fruit where you also get the benefit of the fibers, and you don't get nearly the sugar (carb) or calorie load.

High triglycerides has everything to do with the sugars and starches in your diet. Triglycerides don't come directly from ingested fat, but rather come from sugars/carbs converted to fat to be stored in the body.

Mayo Clinic has good articles about nutrition and blood chemistry.
Triglycerides: Why do they matter? - MayoClinic.com

Many doctors seem to be out-of-date when it comes to their nutrition knowledge. I don't think it's a priority subject in medical school anyway.

Audrey