Medical evidence indicates elevated triglycerides may lead to issues like stroke or heart attack. However, if your triglycerides are too high, the best approach to lowering them is a natural one, according to the American Heart Association (AHA). Making a few adjustments in lifestyle, such as how you prepare your food and adding fish to the menu a couple of times a week, can help manage your triglycerides.
Healthy Eating
The nutritional plan for lowering triglycerides is simply a healthy diet that includes whole grains, fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, lean meats, poultry, fish and nuts while limiting refined sugars and fats, especially saturated fats. Your body's normal metabolic process converts any unused calories consumed in a day into triglycerides, essentially fat, and stores them in your cells for later use. Thus, if you are overweight, a diet that lowers your daily caloric intake to match your activity level or "fuel consumption" is essential to lowering triglycerides. Regardless of your weight or activity, however, your body will convert certain foods, such as white sugar, to stored fat if your metabolism is working efficiently.
Meats, poultry and fish all contain fat, which is essential to your overall health. Americans, however, typically consume much more fat than necessary. Broiling or stir-frying meats with minimal amounts of oil will add less fat to your diet. Your body also converts the natural sugar found in fruits to fuel that ends up as fat if not burned quickly enough, making even apples a poor choice when you consume more than the recommended amount. All carbohydrates become sugar as your metabolism processes the food you eat, but complex carbohydrates found in whole grains take longer for your system to metabolize, using more energy in the digestive process itself and possibly giving you a little more time to walk off a serving of brown rice than a helping of white rice.
Change in Habits
Consuming even small amounts of alcohol on a regular basis can increase triglyceride levels, according to the AHA. Smoking, along with many other negative ramifications, reduces elasticity of arteries and vessels, which in turn increases the risk of plaque buildup associated with high triglycerides.
Moderate physical activity such as brisk walking for 30 minutes a day for five days a week helps the body burn fuel and may prevent abnormal triglyceride levels. Always check with your health care provider before beginning any exercise program.
Fish and Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Salmon, herring, albacore tuna, lake trout and sardines are high in omega-3 fatty acids, which decrease triglyceride levels. The AHA recommends two servings of fish per week, considers 3.5 oz. cooked or 3/4 cup flaked one serving, and advises baking or grilling rather than frying. Canola, walnuts, soybeans and flaxseed also contain omega-3 fatty acids.
Normally preferring fresh fish, nuts or vegetables to the omega-3s contained in supplements, the AHA notes you may require daily supplements if you have high triglycerides or coronary heart disease, since you will need more omega-3s to lower triglycerides than you can consume in a day. As always, however, check with your health care provider before starting an over-the-counter supplement, as its ingredients could interfere with medication you are taking or worsen an existing medical problem.
