Supplement Detective

By Curtis Alexander, Pharm.D.

Summary: You may be confused about what triglycerides are.  You can get triglycerides from many foods.  You can also cause your blood levels to rise or drop depending on the foods you eat.  Much of the mainstream advice about lowering triglycerides is wrong.

Q: What are high triglycerides?  The nurse told me they are a type of cholesterol and that I need to make sure mine stay low.  But she didn’t know exactly why.  What’s the big deal?  I thought total cholesterol was more important.

A: Your nurse was right to let you know about your triglycerides and to keep them low.  But, you ask an important question that weren’t really answered: what are triglycerides made of?  What are normal triglyceride levels and why are they dangerous?

One of the blood levels that your doctor will measure during a routine physical exam is your triglycerides.  But, since they are almost more of an afterthought when it comes to looking at the number, it’s worth taking a closer look at triglycerides and what they are.

Triglycerides Role In Your Body

First, triglycerides are fat.  And, virtually all the fats you eat (95%+) and almost all the fats you store in your fat tissue are triglycerides.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that triglyceride synthesis and the usual dietary advice can get a bit confusing so I’ll try to keep the rest of this as straightforward as possible but bare in mind that there is a lot of ‘misinformation’ about triglycerides and also the proper way to lower them.

Triglycerides Chemical Structure

The first thing you need to know about triglycerides is how your body uses triglycerides and that starts with it’s chemical structure.  Triglyceride is really just a term to describe that there are three fatty acids connected to a glycerol molecule.  In short, these fatty acids are an energy source.  For your body to use this energy source it first has to cleave the fatty acids from the glycerol (usually through enzymes secreted from your pancreas) and then the free fatty acids must have a protein source (albumin) to be transported throughout your body to be used for energy.

Those that aren’t used are stored in your fat cells.

Now, a triglyceride can carry a lot of different types of fatty acids also.  So keep that mind.  We are talking saturated fats, polyunsaturated fats (both omega-3 and omega-6), monounsaturated fats and also the dreaded trans fatty acids.

So you can see that what you really want to avoid is foods high in the worst kinds of triglycerides.  For example, foods that are extremely high in triglycerides are carb-laden foods:

• Starches: bagels, pasta, rice, and potatoes
• Cereals, flavored yogurts and “energy” bars
• Beverages: flavored and creamed coffees, fruit juices and drinks, sports energy and gainer drinks
• Margarine, vegetable shortening and other products used in fast foods.  These are the dreaded Trans Fatty Acids (Trans Fats)
• Alcohol: beer, wine, hard liquor
• Saturated Fats: butter, lard and whole milk

There are also other foods in this list that have higher than average triglycerides.  But again, it’s more focused on what actual fatty acids are part of the triglyceride make-up.

Another point to consider is that while saturated fats have gained a terrible reputation they are needed to a certain extent in your body.  The problem with most people is they overdo it.  So butter is OK, just in moderation.

Triglyceride Triggers

Another point to consider is that while you can get triglycerides in your diet your body can also make them as it needs.

There are all sorts of confusing biochemical processes that occur in your body to make this happen but one of the most potent is insulin.

In short, the more carbs you consume, the more insulin you secrete and, eventually, the more triglycerides your body puts together and sends into your bloodstream.  This is primarily why someone who consumes a lot of carbs (which are high in triglycerides to start with) will also have high levels of circulating triglycerides.

A Personal Story to Illustrate

I recently had some general labs drawn.  I hadn’t done this for nearly five years so I wanted to just get a broad picture of how I sat nutrition-wise.

I expected good triglyceride numbers but they were so low they shocked even me.  My triglycerides were 33.

The lab had to retest them they were so low.  This gives me a very favorable cardiovascular risk profile when you consider my HDL was 54.  The triglyceride to HDL ratio is probably the most important indicator to heart disease risk and you want it below 2.0.  Mine is well below that.  Yours could be too.

Here is an article I wrote on how to lower triglycerides if you’re looking for a little more detail.  It’s a synopsis of my healthy eating plan, which, incidentally, is not related to the American Heart Associations Diet of low-fat and grain-based foods.  While they have improved it a bit over the years it’s still not even close to adequate.