If you have high triglycerides, a triglycerides diet might be just the thing to help keep heart disease at bay. Triglycerides are the most common type of fat that's in our blood. They're a major source of energy and important for good health, but if you have high triglycerides, you may be at risk for heart disease.
As is the case in most diet scenarios, keeping an eye on your weight and body fat percentages is crucial to keeping your triglycerides in check. Excess triglycerides are stored in your body tissue and muscle as fat, which means that those with high triglyceride levels run a greater risk of obesity. Not only can this directly result in heart issues, it leads to a whole new batch of health issues related to excess body weight and overall poor health.
If you have high triglycerides, excess calories in your diet will be converted into triglycerides, therefore perpetuating your problem. Cutting excess calories from your diet is a great way to keep things balanced. Start off with little changes: replace regular soda with diet soft drinks or water and try to replace fatty foods with fruits and vegetables, as they tend to be lower in calories.
Choose Heart-Healthy Foods
High calorie, high-carbohydrate and high-sugar foods should all be limited. Instead, choose foods that are known to help heart health. Go for fish twice a week, lean meats, lots of fruits and veggies, whole grains instead of refined carbs and nonfat and low-fat diary products.
Cut the unhealthy fats from your diet, especially saturated fats. Choosing lean meats and nonfat and low-fat dairy is a good start, but you'll also need to look at the other fatty foods you're eating.
Alcohol has a strong effect on triglycerides, so if you have high triglycerides, you should limit the amount you imbibe.
Having high cholesterol has been recognized as a risk factor for heart disease for many years. When the link between high cholesterol and cardiac disease was first noted it was assumed that by lowering our dietary intake of cholesterol rich foods then we would lower our total cholesterol.
Currently, there are two methods to lower your cholesterol, diet and/or medication. Medications work well in lowering your cholesterol number, but you might be concerned about long term side effects of taking the medication.