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I am confused about where triglycerides come from. They are fats and you would think they come from fats in the diet and the web md article in one of these links says this is true and they also come from excess carbs in the diet that are not stored or used as fuel.

But to lower triglycerides, doctors seem to give you a diet that lowers carbs. One of the links is from Gary Taubes and I think he is all wet. You have to click on the picture to enlarge it.

Besides exercise and lowering refined carbs, do you need to lower starches? Do you need to lower fats?

If anyone can answer this please do.

http://www.foodandtechconnect.com/site/ ... ng_You.png

http://www.webmd.com/cholesterol-manage ... ide-levels

Didi

See

http://www.drmcdougall.com/med_hot_cholesterol.html

http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2010other/news/weil.htm

http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2006nl/oct/sugar.htm

Thanks, Pink, those articles were great and I bookmarked them. As usual though, more information provokes more questions and there are lots of things from these articles that I would like to explore more fully.

In one study subjects were fed 25% more sugar and overfed more than they would normally eat and still their triglycerides rose only 10%. The triglycerides of the subjects were pretty low to begin with.

In another cited study, triglycerides rose 45% and I think they used those with already high triglycerides.

It was mentioned in the articles that the body will burn carbohydrates before fats so eating lots of sugar will make you lose weight slower. But carbs turn to sugar albeit more slowly in whole foods so doesn't this prevent the stored fat in your body from being burned? Especially if your diet is mostly carbs? Evidently not because people on a high whole plant diet are losing weight. However, if the body burns carbs first, it seems that more lower carb vegetables would promote more weight loss. (Apparently this is the rationale behind the MWL plan which has more broccoli and fewer potatoes.)

I really love fruit and so far I have not limited fruit to only two pieces per day. Are those two or three extra pieces a day what is keeping me from losing weight more rapidly?

Other articles I found say that triglycerides are raised by sugars AND fats. Yet the diet my husband was given years ago severely restricted only sugars and refined carbs.

And also I have read that a very good way to lower triglycerides is exercise. I did not read of the mechanism that would explain why exercise lowers triglycerides. I did read elsewhere that if you exercise before eating breakfast you will burn off more fat than after breakfast and maybe this can be explained by the fact that the body burns carbs first and in the absence of carbs the fat will be burned. I don't know.

So many questions. So little time.

Didi

Triglycerides are simply another word for fat. It's the mechanism that the body uses to store excess calories. So eating meat will raise triglycerides - that's what the fat stored in the meat is made of. It's why Dr. McDougall say 'the fat you eat is the fat you wear'. The body sees the fat and simply moves it into storage 'as is'. If you analyze the fatty acid profile of the triglycerides in a plug of fat taken from your butt you can identify where it came from - ie lard or tallow.

The body will convert carbohydrates to fat, but that's not it's preferred method of storage for carbohydrate. The body wants to store carbs as glycogen in the muscles or liver. The conversion of a carbohydrate to glucose to glycogen to glycerol to triglycerides is energy intensive and the body would prefer to burn the carb to generate energy rather than bother. It's one of the metablic advantages to this WOE. 100 calories of potato may only end up equalling 80 calories of food energy due to all the calories burned in conversion. But the body WILL convert carbs to fat if you eat too many refined carbs too quickly.

High levels of fructose can cause some people problems. Fructose isn't converted into muscle glycogen. The muscles don't have the right enzyme. They can only convert glucose. Fructose is converted by the liver and stored as liver glycogen. Needless to say, the liver is a busy organ and has limited storage capacity. Too much fructose (or alcohol) can result in a rise in triglycerides and a fatty liver. Of course, the real culprit here is HFCS not fruit. But some people are sensitive to high fruit consumption, so if your blood tests show high triglycerides in an otherwise compliment (no alcohol, no refined vegan junk food, little refined sugar, no HFCS) diet, fruit could be an issue.

Kate

Yup that all makes sense in that I have read it is an excess that causes the conversion. I can see limiting refined starches (who needs them?) but I can't remember if my husband's diet included corn or potatoes etc. And you would think that it would be a requirement to cut back on fats but that didn't seem to be the emphasis of the anti triglyceride diet.

Didi

My triglycerides are high as well and I am trying to pinpoint the cause. I read all the above links and didi said, it really just begs to ask more questions.

I don't eat much fruit at all and watch the refined vegan junk food, use very little sugar and no HFCS. But I could be getting hit with the beer I am drinking. I have changed that habit as well, but still end up drinking what equates to a 6 pack a week. But that is down from before starting this way of eating.

That is really the only food I can point to that continues to keep my TRIG at 205, which is down from 210 last December, but was not nearly as big of a drop from July, 2011 when it started at 269.

I did notice some information from the Cleveland Clinic that read,



I sure hope it's the beer.

Here is a post from the Healthy Librarians blog:

happyhealthylonglife.com/happy_healthy_long_life/2009/09/low-triglycerides.html

Since she is very compliant with the Esselstyn diet, I don't worry about information coming out of "left field"

Ginger thank for that link. Does provide some information I had not previous read. I am not clicking on many of the linked articles the author has.

The Healty Librarian log is awesome, I hadn't seen this article, thanks for posting it. I seem to have hereditary high triglycerides, I have been fighting to keep them under 150, my triglycerides are never as low as 80:

The article points out that late night eating may be bad for triglycerides. Right now I eat dinner fairly late, and promptly turn into a couch potato. I think I will try an earlier dinner followed by a walk. What the article says makes sense:

After following this WOE my weight is normal. I don't use sugar or sweet drinks. I somewhat limit alcohol and flour products. Fruits don't seem to raise triglycerides for me, but I don't eat more than about 3 servings a day. I have 1-2 oz of nuts a day, mostly raw almonds and walnuts, I think adding nuts has helped keeping my triglycerides lower, but it is hard to be sure.

I will try altering my evening habits for a week and post my results on this thread. Chris