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Hi, I was journaling my efforts to lower triglycerides last spring and summer, I quit when they went up and I couldn't get them down again. Now I have hit two weeks in a row <150 so I am journaling again. It is like walking an invisible tightrope, if I am on I can just keep stepping in the same direction, if I get off track it is hard to get back.

Fruit, alcohol, sugar, flour products raise triglycerides, so MWL eating helps lower them. Exercise lowers triglycerides. I'm not sure why it is hard to get back on track, maybe it takes weeks of eating right, maybe I need more exercise, BMI might be a problem, I gained some weight over the summer, and have lost about half of it.

So I have been eating mostly MWL, lentils, potatoes, squash, beans, rice, salads. I have been snacking on nuts, and keeping snacks to a minimum. That is one of the things I am keeping the same, minimal snacks between meals, I don't know if it helps but that is what I was doing the last two weeks. I mostly walk for exercise, but I have been trying to add other exercises.

My hdl tends to be low, and triglycerides high, which is not a good thing. My ratio for the last two weeks: 4.2, 4.4 Worst case over the last few months, 11.3. I will try another week of repeating the same habits and see what happens. Chris

The good news is that I learned something this week; the bad news is my tri's went back up, for a ratio of 7. I got less exercise, but really don't know where I stepped off the invisible line.

So a series of events led me to learn something. I happened to be snacking on nuts when my tri was low, so I kept that up. Then we ran out of other kinds of nuts and I was snacking just on raw almonds. When I measured my TC last week it was low, 105, so I re-checked and got 103. Then I happened to see an article on the net that said almonds are as good as statins for lowering cholesterol. This week we were out of almonds and my TC was 123, which is a very good level, but if my cholesterol goes up past 150 I will break out the almonds. The problem with nuts of course is you have to be able to eat only a small amount, mostly I can do that if I keep full on starches.

It seems like I keep doing the same thing and hoping for better results, increasing my exercise seems like the best thing to do to get different results. Not an easy thing to translate my intentions to exercise sessions. I already avoid foods that raise tri, which certainly helps but does not result in consistently low numbers. Also, this week is T-day and I should have more time to exercise, but I will not have the same diet as the last few weeks, due to travel, visiting relatives and feasting. Chris

After hitting a 7.0 ratio, I quit being so careful about what I was eating, and happened to eat pizza, white flour crust, no cheese two days in a row. Then I wanted to see what my numbers were after that, and I had great numbers, 4.0 ratio. MWL is better for tri than the regular program, based on a long time tracking this, but something else was going on I guess.

Our Thanksgiving dinner was fake-meat roast, stuffed squash, mashed potatoes and mashed sweet potatoes, green beans, and vegan crustless pumpkin pie. Also sparkling cider. This week I also ate out a few times, snacked on fruit and leftover pie, and had one glass of wine (second one this year ). I was expecting terrible numbers, but hit 4.8 ratio, not good but not terrible. I did get some exercise most days. For next week, back to normal eating and getting more exercise.

I like your Thanksgiving menu! keep on going the way you are, and your numbers will get better and better.

Hi buns, thanks for stopping by, I was reading some of your journal; flylady changed my work around the house habits a lot. There is so much good information on this board. I read a post by Katydid which reminded me how tris work, I was going to quote it here but couldn't find it again.

Tris are pretty much energy balance. When we eat fat, chylomicrons pick it up from the gut and deliver it directly to fat cells for storage, like little 'C' delivery trucks on a highway (the blood stream). When glycogen storage is full, the liver makes triglycerides (fat) from starch. 'T' delivery trucks are loaded up at the liver to take it to fat cells for storage, and to other cells. For people with a 'good' lipid profile, all is well; for some of us the highway is crowded with 'T' delivery trucks and our fat cells are slow to take the delivery. Then the fat winds up in other cells (as in fatty liver) and causes problems. So fat cells that are reluctant to make us fatter turn out to be not such a good thing.

So there are two points under our control to lower triglycerides. One is eating less , or at least less calorie density or fasting, so less triglycerides are produced by the liver. The other is to exercise more which uses the glycogen and causes other beneficial changes.

There are some T2diabetes drugs which help increase uptake by fat cells, they have the unpopular side effect of weight gain. I don't have T2D and don't expect to thanks to this WOE.

I have been working on these two things, so far it seems to help. I have found that my usual oatmeal and fruit breakfast hold me until lunch, I eat lunch when I am hungry and the amount varies. My problem is we eat dinner late, it is the largest meal of the day and often I don't move much after dinner. This is followed by an overnight fast, but my levels are not so low in the morning. I need to eat less at night and maybe eat earlier. Exercising is just a matter of setting some goals and exercising. It takes time but I need to do it.

This morning I was hungry at 11 for lunch. I checked my tri --158, I thought it might drop if I exercised and waited to eat, so I walked a mile on the treadmill. At 12:30 I measured again and it was up to 204. Oh well, I guess that was tri from fat deposits, not from the liver, which means losing weight, but delaying lunch didn't have the planned effect on my blood lipids.

I made the perilous journey through the holidays relatively unscathed this year. A combination of planning and fortunate circumstances, there were just fewer bad foods in the house and fewer times when I had to eat out.

This morning my ratio was 4.0 and tri at 140, low for me, but my tc was up. I am scratching my head because last night dinner included two slices of bread, an apple and a tangerine. Foods I would expect to raise tri. This is my lowest number since Nov .

I haven't exercised much other than walking, so I am still trying to get more exercise, and to drop a few pounds. I am happy with not gaining over the past month. My BMI is ok, I am wondering if being a few pounds lighter would drop my triglycerides.

(editing to add:) I just remembered something I ate yesterday. I have had occasional mouth ulcers my whole life, seemingly due to stress and helped by taking vitamin B. This week I have one that is not clearing up and though yesterday that maybe raw garlic would help clear it up. I searched the web just now and did find some claims that raw garlic lowers triglycerides. I will add some garlic to my diet for a few weeks and see what happens.

Question for you Chris,

How are you testing your triglycerides at home???

I didn't know this was something you can check at home.

Vic

Hi, I use a Cardiochek monitor, which cost very roughly about $100 for the meter and $5 for each test strip (one use), total cholesterol, HDL and tri. I bought the meter online, and buy test strips online periodically.

There are also labs that market to individuals, you can order a test online and go to a local lab, heathtestingcenters.com, that is $39 for a TC, HDL and triglycerides. chrisv

Read an article about raising HDL by exercise, the conclusion was that if your HDL is low, exercising will only raise is by a small amount; but it is worthwhile raising it by that amount.

Making some changes to my diet has changed my numbers, my tri was 104 today (ratio 3.0). This is a very good number for me, but my LDL went above 100, it has been in the 50-80 range.

I made some garlic walnut sauce from Dr. Esselstyn's book. I used a suggestion from Dr. Greger and Dr. Fuhrman to chop/press the garlic and wait 10 minutes or so, which allows an enzyme to act. So among my diet changes are more garlic/onion and more fruit. I had been really limiting fruit and my tri levels don't seem very sensitive to fruit.

Measured my blood again today, after only two days, mainly because I will be traveling for the next few days which means my diet changes somewhat. My triglycerides shot up from 103 to 201.

This made me wonder about how much numbers vary, so I looked at mine for the last 5 months, approximately weekly measurements. The average percent changes week to week between am fasting values were:

glucose: 6% HDL: 8% chol: 10% triglycerides: 31%

So glucose had the least variation which suprised me, obviously glucose rises after meals, I'm not sure how triglycerides vary with meals.

This week my numbers are wonderful, I was reading my journal trying to see if I am learning anything about my own response to foods. Here is a summary:

A diet high in unrefined starches lowers cholesterol and BMI, or keeps them low. (pretty much a given here but I thought I would state it anyway.)

The rest is my own experience and opionions. YMMV.

MWL is a heathier version of McD, due to lower calorie density and less processed food (flour products).

Raw almonds lower cholesterol.

Garlic and maybe onions lower triglycerides. I use something from Dr. Greger's site nutritionfacts.org; pressing or chopping garlic or onions and leaving them for 10 minutes for enzymes to work, before using in a recipe.

Occasional glasses of wine do not raise my triglycerides.

Fruit, at the level of normal serving amounts per day do not raise my triglycerides, I haven't tried larger amounts but lower amounts don't change anything.

Taking a second measurement of tri before lunch will tell me if a morning spike was just transient.

At the moment my diet is McD with brown rice, ww pasta, gold and red potatoes and sweet potatoes as the most typical starches. I eat some nuts daily. My diet leans toward Fuhrman's recomendations in including nuts, beans and greens. I would like to know my %fat, but so far haven't carried through measuring it. Chris

My numbers are still good, so I will keep on the same track and see how long I can keep my triglycerides low. My journal is mainly about numbers, so not much going on there, might as well rant.

I was looking for frozen fruit at two different times recently; I looked in the two major grocery chains near by. Both times I had to walk up and down the frozen food aisles a number of times before locating the tiny, unmarked section with frozen fruit. The largest section is ice cream and frozen treats, like by far the largest. There is also a large frozen pizza section. That does not seem so bad, pizza can be good food, if it is not the ever-popular extra meat and cheese, hold the vegetables.

We often had ice cream in the freezer when I was a kid. It was usually vanilla, and probably the least expensive brand available. Basically it was ok, sometimes good on a hot day. I really do not know, but I am guessing it was lower fat than what is typical now. If we had had the kind with chocolate chunks and cherries, or some of the other gourmet types, it probably would not have stayed in the freezer until it had freezer burn. Chris

I was reading Dr Fuhrman's book Super Immunity just before getting smacked by a virus that is going around. DH did not get it, maybe he has super immunity, or maybe he has had it before. We went to visit relatives last weekend, I was very relieved to be over it before that trip happened.

Measuring my blood numbers they are, no surprise, worse than a few weeks ago. My HDL is very low and my cholesterol just above 150, not terrible anyway. Due to the virus, weather, and travel I have exercised very little, usually I get a lot of walking in each week, even if that is all. Not the past two weeks though. My exercise level apparently keeps my HDL up, which is motivation to get that out and move again.

My DD was home for a week, and I indulged in a few treats that week. So for the past week I have been watching what I eat, still eating lots of food, but watching calorie density. So it has been yo-yo dieting with a tiny yo-yo. My numbers were fine while indulging, but are not as good this week. I don't know if this is due to losing the three pounds I gained or maybe to stress over the past few days. Things should be back to normal for a while, normal weight, normal stress level.