A healthy diet lowers triglycerides and raises the amount of HDL, or good cholesterol, in your blood. Cholesterol imbalance is an important health issue these days. More than 102 million adults in the U.S. have high cholesterol, according to the Centers for Disease Control. High cholesterol is associated with increased risk for heart disease, kidney disease and even Alzheimer's.
Levels
A nutritious diet lowers triglyceride levels and raises HDL to healthy limits. Your triglyceride level should be less than 150 mg/dL. A healthy HDL is 60 mg/dL or higher to provide maximum protection against heart disease.
Anatomy
The fat we eat gets absorbed into the intestines and then goes into the liver. The liver converts fat into cholesterol and triglycerides. Triglycerides are stored in fat cells. Fat cells contain most of the triglycerides in your body, but some float through the bloodstream to provide energy to muscles. These free-flowing cholesterols and triglycerides lead to heart disease. The best diet controls the amount of cholesterol and triglycerides traveling through the bloodstream.
Reduce Calories
Triglycerides store unused calories to provide your body with energy between meals. Reducing the number of calories you consume decreases the level of triglycerides in your blood. A low-calorie diet will also result in weight loss; losing weight increases HDL. You increase HDL one point for every 6 pounds you lose, according to MayoClinic.com.
Saturated Fat
Eating too much saturated fat and cholesterol are the main reasons for high cholesterol, according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Avoid eating an excessive amount of animal products, like meat, eggs and dairy. Restrict fat intake to 25 to 35 percent of your total calorie intake, and get no more than 7 percent of your daily calories from saturated fat products like meat and butter. Trans fat should make up less than 1 percent of your daily caloric intake.
Increase HDL function
Change your diet to increase HDL or to help HDL function more efficiently. Soluble fiber in oatmeal and bananas is beneficial to HDL. Fatty fish, like salmon and mackerel, are high in omega-3 fatty acid, which also has a positive affect on HDL. Olive and canola oil improve HDL's anti-inflammatory abilities.
Benefits
The best diet to lower triglycerides and raise good cholesterol reduces the risk for heart disease as well as other medical conditions such as kidney disease or stroke. Excess cholesterol builds up in the bloodstream and accumulates inside the walls of blood vessels. This injures the vessels and prevents blood from flowing smoothly to vital organs of the body. You may experience chest pains or even heart attack if the muscles of your heart do not receive enough oxygen-rich blood. A healthy diet decreases complications from excessive cholesterol in your blood.
