Blood Fats: Taming Your Triglycerides

By Amy Campbell, MS, RD, CDE

Your health care provider has probably talked to you about your cholesterol level, and if it’s high, there are many ways to help bring it down. Has he or she also talked with you about your triglyceride level? If so, you might be wondering exactly what this is.

What are triglycerides? The term “triglyceride” is used to describe a specific type of fat, or lipid, found in the blood. Triglycerides are the form in which fat is found in some of the food that you eat and in your body. Triglycerides are the way fat is carried in your body to be either used for fuel or stored as fat. Any calories from the food you eat that aren’t used for fuel right away are packaged as triglycerides and stored in your fat cells. Your liver also makes triglycerides. Your triglyceride level is measured by a blood test and is usually measured along with your total cholesterol, HDL and LDL cholesterol (called a lipid profile). You should not eat anything 12 hours before having your triglycerides measured.

 What causes high triglycerides?

Several factors can cause high triglycerides. These include:

  • Age, the older you are, the higher your triglycerides will be
  • Being overweight or obese
  • Not being physically active
  • Smoking
  • Drinking too much alcohol
  • Eating a very high carbohydrate diet
  • Certain conditions, such as diabetes, kidney disease, high blood pressure, liver disease and low thyroid
  • Some medications, including diuretics (water pills), steroids and birth control pills
  • Family history

10 WAYS To tame triglycerides

  1. Lose weight if you need to. Losing even a few pounds can help lower your triglycerides, as well as your blood glucose if you have diabetes.
  2. Manage your blood glucose levels. If you have diabetes and your blood glucose levels have been high, work with your healthcare team to help bring them down.
  3. Get regular physical activity. Being physically active on most days of the week not only helps lower triglycerides, it helps you manage your blood glucose, lowers your risk for heart disease, helps with weight control and can even relieve stress. Physical activity does not have to be strenuous. Talk to your health care provider about what kind and how much activity would be best for you, but keep in mind that even taking a walk every day can help.
  4. Stop smoking, if you do smoke. Studies show that smoking can raise triglyceride levels.
  5. Eat less saturated and trans fats.  Both saturated fat, found in butter, shortening, red meat and whole milk, and trans fat, found in margarines, fast foods and certain snack foods, can raise your cholesterol and triglyceride levels, and put you at risk for heart disease. Instead, use heart healthy fats, such as olive and canola oil, and trans fat free margarine. Also include fatty fish (salmon, mackerel, sardines, trout), avocados, nuts and seeds in your eating plan. Watch your portion sizes, however, since all fats are very high in calories.
  6. Eat less sugar and sweets. Sugar and sweets, such as cookies, candy and cake, can raise triglycerides in some people. Sugar substitutes, including saccharin (Sweet ‘N Low), aspartame (Equal) and sucralose (Splenda) are okay to use for most people.
  7. Drink less alcohol. If your triglycerides are very high, it’s a good idea to cut back on or even stop drinking alcohol, whether it’s beer, wine or mixed drinks.
  8. Cut back on carbohydrates. Eating too much carbohydrate can raise triglyceride levels in some people. You should not stop eating carbohydrates, but you may need to eat smaller portions of refined carbohydrate foods, such as white bread, white pasta and white rice.
  9. Fill up on fiber. Fiber is found in fruits, vegetables and whole grain foods, such as whole wheat bread, bran cereals, oatmeal and brown rice. Eating high fiber foods every day can help you lower your triglyceride levels.
  10. Try meatless meals once in a while. Tofu, tempeh and soy “burgers” and “hot dogs” are tasty, healthy ways to help you cut back on red meat. And soy has been shown to lower triglyceride levels, too.

Are triglycerides harmful?

If the amount of triglycerides in your blood is too high, you may be at risk for heart disease. Very high triglycerides may also cause pancreatitis, a serious inflammation of the pancreas. If you have diabetes and your triglycerides are high, you may also have high blood glucose levels. Insulin, a hormone that lowers blood glucose, also lowers triglycerides, so high blood glucose and high triglycerides are often seen together. In some cases, high triglycerides are linked to undiagnosed diabetes.

What’s a good triglyceride level?

Both the American Diabetes Association and the National Cholesterol Education Program recommend a triglyceride level of 150 mg/dL or lower. How can you lower your triglyceride level?

The good news is that there are many steps you can take to lower your triglycerides if they’re too high. Triglycerides tend to drop fairly quickly, compared to cholesterol. Be sure you talk with your healthcare team about why your triglycerides are high and how you can get them down. In the meantime, see the information to your left for some ways to get started.

What about medicine?

You may need to take medicine to help lower your triglycerides if lifestyle changes aren’t enough. There are several different kinds of drugs that can help. These include statins (which also lower cholesterol levels), nicotinic acid (a type of niacin), fibrates, and prescription strength omega-3 fatty acids. If you do need to take medicine, your provider will check your blood triglycerides regularly to see how the medicine is working.

Fish Oil Supplements

The American Heart Association recommends eating fatty fish at least two times per week. The kind of fat found in fish, called omega-3 fatty acids, can help lower blood triglyceride levels.

Omega-3 fatty acids also come in capsule form for people who don’t like or can’t eat fish. Your healthcare provider may suggest you take omega-3 fatty acids in a supplement to lower your triglyceride levels.  However, you should only take these under his or her care.  Tell your provider if you are taking omega-3 fatty acids or any other kind of dietary supplement.

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Constance Brown-Riggs, MSEd, RD, CDE, CDN—an award-winning RD, certified diabetes educator, and past national spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, is the author of The African American Guide to Living Well With Diabetes, which received the Favorably Reviewed designation from the American Association of Diabetes Educators, and Eating Soulfully and Healthfully with Diabetes.

Dr. Lori Shemek, PhD, CNC, CLC, the best-selling author of “Fire-Up Your Fat Burn! and leading health and weight loss expert, is also known as “The Inflammation Terminator.” She has made it her mission to educate the public on the toxic effects of certain foods and lifestyle choices and how they create inflammation in the body. She is a leading authority on inflammation and its role in weight loss, preventing disease and optimizing health.

Rebecca Bitzer – MS, RD/LD, CEDRD is an award-winning Registered Dietitian, writer, speaker, blogger, and REBEL Dietitian business owner. Rebecca and her team of six Registered Dietitians have counseled thousands of clients struggling with diabetes for over twenty-five years. They work closely with each other along with internists, endocrinologists, therapists, and families.

Maureen Sullivan – RN, CDE has worked for many years as a Registered Nurse, most of them in emergency and trauma services. She is a Certified Emergency Nurse, Certified Diabetes Educator, and the former manager of a hospital stroke program. Maureen’s wealth of knowledge, passion for nursing and education, and ability to engage people makes her an excellent teacher and a captivating lecturer. Recently, Maureen has been concentrating on writing, speaking and teaching, as well as working on her award-winning weekly podcast, “The Health and Humor Show.”

Lauren Harris-Pincus, MS, RDN is a nutrition communications specialist, registered dietitian in private practice, social media consultant, speaker, spokesperson and corporate consultant. She is currently the owner of Nutrition Starring YOU, LLC and www.NutritionStarringYOU.com. Lauren strongly believes that we should “Think Healthy, not Skinny”, and “EveryBODY is unique, your diet should be too”. Lauren was co-host of the Family Food Experts Kitchen radio show, available for listening on iHeart Radio and iTunes. Also known as one of the “NutritionBabes”, Lauren co-founded NutritionBabes.com, a popular Health and Wellness website in 2009. NutritionBabes.com was voted one of Healthline’s Top 100 Health Blogs in 2011, 2012 and 2013.

Mark Heyman, PhD, CDE is a clinical health psychologist and the director of the Center for Diabetes and Mental Health (CDMH). In addition to treating patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, Dr. Heyman provides training for health care providers on how to identify and address the emotional and behavioral aspects of diabetes in their patients. He also works with pharmaceutical and medical device companies to help them understand these issues and incorporate this information into their sales, marketing, and patient education materials. He is particularly interested in empirically supported behavioral interventions that promote behavior change and improve physical and mental health in people with diabetes.

Katie Ferraro, MPH, RD, CDE is a nationally-recognized registered dietitian, certified diabetes educator and author with an expertise in nutrition communications and curriculum development. She is the co-author of “Diet Therapy in Advanced Practice Nursing” (McGraw Hill, 2014) and an Assistant Clinical Professor of Nutrition at the University of California San Francisco and University of San Diego’s graduate schools of nursing.

Dr. Beverly S. Adler, PhD, CDE (aka “Dr. Bev”) is a clinical psychologist and certified diabetes educator, author and speaker. She specializes treating the emotional issues of people with diabetes. In her private practice, she provides individual, family and/or group therapy utilizing a cognitive behavior therapy orientation, combined with a spiritual approach. Her goal is to empower her patients to manage their diabetes.

Dr. Bev is the author of two self-help diabetes books. She has written numerous articles which are published in print and online – always focused on diabetes from the emotional perspective. She also speaks to audiences of people living with diabetes, as well as, to audiences of healthcare professionals and diabetes educators. Dr. Bev, herself, has been living successfully with type 1 diabetes for 40+ years.

In August 2016, Dr. Bev was honored to receive the “CDE Entrepreneur of the Year” Award from her Metropolitan NY Association of Diabetes Educators.

Jill Weisenberger, MS, RDN, CDE, FAND is an internationally recognized nutrition and diabetes expert with more than two decades experience. Through writing, speaking and one-on-one coaching, Jill empowers people to grab control of their health. She has worked as both a nutrition counselor and a diabetes educator in the hospital and research settings, and now in private practice in Newport News, VA. Jill is known for her practical approach and caring attitude. Her no-nonsense strategies to eating well include foods that both taste good and are good for you.

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Marlene has sold over one million cookbooks, and is a regular guest on QVC.

Barbara Ruhs – MS, RDN is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and owner of Neighborhood Nutrition LLC, a consulting firm focused on providing solutions to help food companies and supermarkets improve consumer health & wellness. She’s a former supermarket dietitian and has run a successful business for 17 years. A leader in the field of nutrition, her mission is to help people by impacting the way food is produced, marketed and sold. She’s a strong advocate for supermarket dietitians and believes the retail food industry has the greatest potential to impact public health.

Cheryl Orlansky has over 25 years of experience in health promotion and chronic disease prevention and management. Her first career as a registered dental hygienist led her towards a path of wellness and nutrition! Her expertise is in diabetes, weight management and cardiovascular disease for individuals and groups. She works in a large private practice including endocrinology, internal medicine, rheumatology, neurology and sleep medicine. She is an award winning dietitian with current leadership positions in state and local dietetics organizations.

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Jackie Newgent, RDN, CDN, is a registered dietitian nutritionist and classically-trained chef. With a passion for helping people (including her father) with diabetes, she’s author of The With or Without Meat Cookbook: The Flexible Approach to Flavorful Diabetes Cooking and the award-winning The All‐Natural Diabetes Cookbook, both published by the American Diabetes Association. Jackie is also author of 1,000 Low-Calorie Recipes and Big Green Cookbook. Her next book, The All-Natural Diabetes Cookbook—2nd Edition, was published in 2015.

Nutritionist Rania Batayneh, MPH is the author of the best-selling book, The One One One Diet. She holds a master’s degree in public health nutrition from the University of Michigan School of Public Health and is also a Wellcoaches Certified Health and Wellness Coach endorsed by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM).

OmnichannelHealth Media, publisher of DiabetesDigest.com, does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. See additional information.