Triglycerides, a type of fat, occur in foods and are produced in your body. Eat fatty foods--steak, fries and buttered popcorn--and your bloodstream triglycerides will rise. Your body also converts sugar and alcohol to triglycerides. If you drink more than one or two alcoholic beverages a day, your triglycerides may rise to hazardous levels.
Triglyceride Levels
If your triglycerides rise above 200mg/dl--milligrams per deciliter of blood--you face a high risk of suffering heart attacks or strokes. If they rise above 500mg/dl, you face a very high risk of developing cardiovascular disease. To protect your heart, keep your triglycerides below 150mg/dl. Ideally, you should keep them below 100mg/dl, according to a scientific statement released by the American Heart Association in April 2011. Alcohol and items in mixed drinks can elevate your triglycerides.
Limit Alcohol Consumption
Men should limit themselves to two drinks a day and women to one. If you're older than 50, stick to one drink per day regardless of gender. And if your triglycerides measure higher than 500mg/dl, ask your doctor whether you should further restrict your drinking habits. Your body stores triglycerides in your fat cells, releasing them as needed for energy. If you supply your body with more triglycerides than it needs, you build up unhealthy levels of reserves in your bloodstream.
Calories
You also build up triglycerides if you weigh more than you should. The calories in alcohol can lead to weight gain. Three cans of beer, for instance, provide about 450 calories. If you drank three cans of beer every day, you could gain 45 lbs. a year, based on the formula that 3,500 calories equals 1 lb. of fat. A margarita may contain twice as many calories. And if you drink alcoholic beverages that contain ice cream, whipped cream or both, you might consume more than 1,000 calories in a single drink.
Sugar
The American Heart Association recommends that men limit their dairy sugar calories to 150 a day and women limit themselves to 100. If you add regular soda or sweet and sour mixes to alcohol, you are adding sugar calories. If you added 3 oz. of soda to three alcoholic drinks, you would add nearly 100 sugar calories to your diet. The AHA also recommends you moderate your intake of fructose to 50g to 100g a day. If you add fruit juice or lemonade sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, these substances would count toward your daily fructose limits.
References
- MayoClinic.com; High cholesterol; June 24, 2010
- American Heart Association; Dietary, lifestyle changes can significantly reduce triglycerides; April 18, 2011
- American Heart Association; Alcohol and Cardiovascular Disease; March 3, 2011
- MayoClinic.com; Healthy diet: End the guesswork with these nutrition guidelines; February 2011
- United States Departmen of Agriculture Nutrient Database
