My name is Christine Marquette, and I'm a registered dietitian, with the Austin Regional Clinic, and I'm going to talk to you about how to eat to lower triglycerides. Triglycerides are a type of fat that's found in the blood, similar to cholesterol, but what affects it, is a bit different. The foods that can increase triglycerides, not only include saturated and trans fat, but also include concentrated sugars and starches ,so that entails a lot of different foods. Some of the foods that you want to be sure to limit, would be things like pastries, even bagels, white rice, pasta. All of those items are very starchy foods, and if you eat too many of them, your liver can actually use those to make triglycerides ,so some better choices, to actually help lower your triglycerides, are whole grain starches, if you are going to have a starch, so an example would be brown rice. Another example would be a whole wheat pasta. If you're going to have potatoes, you'd want to have potato with the peel, for example. That will really increase the fiber. Other things that you want to make sure and include are healthy fats. I mentioned that saturated and trans, those are the kinds you want to limit, because they can increase your triglycerides ,while the healthy fats would be the unsaturated variety. Things like avocados, nuts, seeds, canola oil, olive oil, or fats in seafood. All of these types of fats are very healthy and they really help with lowering your triglycerides. Another thing to keep in mind, is making sure that you're getting plenty of fiber, from fruits and vegetables. Even though fruits do have some sugar to them, they also have a lot of fiber, so they're still very beneficial in your body, for lowering triglycerides, but you do want to avoid fruit juice. Fruit juice is very concentrated in natural sugars, and doesn't have a lot of fiber, so your liver would actually be able to use that, to increase triglycerides, so fruit juice is not the best choice, but the whole fresh fruit is definitely a good choice. Another thing to keep in mind, is just how you're eating. You want to make sure that you don't skip meals. That's another thing that can increase triglycerides. If you go all day long without eating, and only have one large meal late in the day, your liver will actually produce more triglycerides during the day, in an effort to keep your energy levels up, so make sure you're not skipping meals. Make sure you're really limiting starchy foods, like white rice, potato chips, or sweets, like cookies and ice cream. Really angle for those high fiber choices, and lots of fruits and vegetables, including those healthy fats, so those are just a few tips for how to lower your triglycerides.
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