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Advanced Blood Lipid Support
What to Eat, Or Not to Eat, to Lower High Triglycerides?
Blood fats - triglycerides, cholesterol, etc. - to a great extent are intimately related to what you eat; therefore, your diet has a strong impact on the levels of triglycerides in the blood, so your food choices should be given serious consideration.
When it comes to high blood triglycerides, carbohydrates have a predominant impact on your triglyceride level.
"Since triglycerides are circulating forms of fat in the blood, you might think that a high-fat diet will raise triglycerides and a low-fat diet would lower triglycerides.
However, carbohydrate appears to be the most important dietary predictor of triglycerides.
Diets high in carbohydrates, especially sugar, lead to increases in triglycerides." (American Association for Clinical Chemistry)
As foods are within your control, a significant drop in your blood triglycerides level should occur in four to six weeks - if you follow a strict sugar-free, alcohol-free eating plan.
First Things First: "Foods" to Avoid
The following foods are so bad for your body that there is no any reason to eat them. Not only do they have zero nutritional value, but they also give your body quite a dose of toxins.
Doughnuts
fried in vegetable oils, therefore, high in trans fat (store-bought doughnuts contain 35-40 per cent trans fat!)
high in sugar (an average doughnut contains about 200-300 calories, mostly from sugar, and few other nutrients)
full of white flour (in most varieties).
Nutritionally speaking, eating a doughnut is one of the worst ways to start off your day. It will through off your blood sugar and won’t stay with you so you’ll be hungry again soon. You are better off eating no breakfast at all...
Soda (Regular and "Diet")
high in sugar (one can of soda has about 10 teaspoons of sugar - 150 calories)
high in caffeine (30 to 55 mg of caffeine per one can of soda)
loaded with artificial food colors and sulphites
filled with harmful artificial sweeteners like aspartame - NutraSweet, Equal (in the "diet" varieties).
Nutritionally speaking, drinking soda leads to nutrient deficiencies, osteoporosis, obesity, tooth decay and heart disease; yet, the average American drinks an estimated 56 gallons of soft drinks each year (!)
Especially threatening is the consumption of soft drinks among children. Unfortunately, schools often make marketing deals with leading soft drink companies in exchange for their students’ health (most school hallways are lined with soda-filled vending machines!).
PLEASE NOTE: One of the simplest and most profound health improvements, including lowering your blood triglycerides level, you can make is to eliminate soda from your diet.
French Fries (Nearly All Commercially Fried Foods)
high in trans fat (potatoes cooked at high temperatures in vegetable oils)
high in free radicals harmful to the body
high in acrylamide (up to 82 mcg per serving), a potent cancer-causing chemical formed as a result of unknown chemical reactions during
high-temperature frying or baking.
Nutritionally speaking, consuming foods that are fried in vegetable oils contributes to aging, clotting, inflammation, cancer and weight gain.
PLEASE NOTE: One French fry is worse for your health than... one cigarette, so you may want to consider this before you order your next ‘Biggie’ order.
Chips (Corn, Potato, Tortilla, etc.)
high in trans fat (present in most commercial chips)
high carcinogenic acrylamide (up to 25 mcg per serving).
contaminated with parasites and resistant viruses (they may not even be killed with high heat).
Eating these scavenger animals gives you with every bite a quadruple dose of toxins.
"Healthy" Foods to Avoid
The following five foods are widely known as generally “healthy” foods, but as you’ll soon read, you’re much better off without them.
Wheat Bread
Wheat bread should NOT be considered a healthy or necessary part of the diet. Wheat is often contaminated with mycotoxins and no matter what the form, wheat, whole wheat, cracked wheat, sprouted wheat, etc., they will all be capable of causing the same problems including: celiac disease, rheumatoid arthritis, miscarriages, headaches, infertility, developmental delay in children, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
Intolerance to wheat is far more common than doctors typically recognize. Also wheat, and nearly all other grains, rapidly convert to sugar and rapidly accelerate aging and chronic illness in most, although certainly not all of us.
Unless you are seriously underweight, most of us would best be served by limiting or avoiding wheat altogether.
Rest assured that if you indulge in grains to excess you are heading for any number of diseases. With no doubt, avoiding wheat will likely mean an increased level of health for you.
Vegetable Oil
Polyunsaturated oils, which include vegetable oils like corn, soy, safflower and canola , are the worst oils you can eat, as generally Americans’ intake of omega-6 fat from these vegetable oils is far too high.
Experts looking at the dietary ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids, which are the healthy fats found in fish oil and cod liver oil, suggest that in early human history the ratio was about 1:1.
Currently most Americans eat a dietary ratio that falls between 20:1 and 50:1. The optimal ratio is most likely closer to the original ratio of 1:1. For most of us this means greatly reducing the omega-6 fatty acids we consume and increasing the amount of omega-3 fatty acids.
Further, polyunsaturated oils are the worst oils to cook with because they tend to become easily oxidized or rancid when exposed to heat from cooking. This results in the formation of trans-fat and damaging free radicals.
Unfortunately, the truly healthy oil, coconut oil, is regarded as the ‘dangerous’ oil and vegetables oils are regarded as healthy, when it should be the other way around.
Soy
In recent years soy has emerged as a ‘near perfect’ food, with supporters claiming it can provide an ideal source of protein, lower cholesterol, protect against cancer and heart disease, reduce menopause symptoms, and prevent osteoporosis, among other things.
However, numerous studies have found that soy products may:
Increase the risk of breast cancer in women, brain damage in both men and women, and abnormalities in infants
Contribute to thyroid disorders, especially in women
Promote kidney stones
Weaken the immune system
Cause severe, potentially fatal food allergies.
Perhaps the most disturbing of soy’s ill effects on health has to do with its phytoestrogens that can mimic the effects of the female hormone estrogen. These phytoestrogens have been found to have adverse effects on various human tissues, and drinking even two glasses of soy milk daily for one month has enough of the chemical to alter a woman’s menstrual cycle.
Soy is particularly problematic for infants, and soy infant formulas should be avoided. It has been estimated that infants who are fed soy formula exclusively receive five birth control pills worth of estrogen every day.
Pasteurized Dairy
Despite the widespread notion that milk is healthy, drinking pasteurized milk is frequently associated with a worsening of health.
This is particularly sad because milk is one of the healthiest foods available prior to its being pasteurized. Raw dairy, as opposed to the pasteurized dairy that is sold in most grocery stores, is something nearly everyone should regularly consume.
The pasteurization process creates many problems in milk. As Sally Fallon of the Weston Price Foundation states:
“Pasteurization destroys enzymes, diminishes vitamin content, denatures fragile milk proteins, destroys vitamin B12 and vitamin B6, kills beneficial bacteria, promotes pathogens and is associated with allergies, increased tooth decay, colic in infants, growth problems in children, osteoporosis, arthritis, heart disease and cancer.”
Unfortunately, raw milk is not commercially available, and you will need to seek out a local dairy farmer as a supplier.
Orange Juice (and All Fruit Juice)
Fruit juice has about eight (8) full teaspoons of sugar per eight-ounce glass. This sugar is typically a fruit sugar called fructose, which is every bit as dangerous as regular table sugar since it will also cause a major increase in insulin levels.
Further, many commercial orange juices are contaminated with mold from damaged fruit that are processed. So if you drink commercial orange juice regularly you will be exposed to these mold toxins.
This doesn’t mean that you should avoid fruit, just fruit juice. When the fruit is intact and whole, its fiber will somewhat moderate the release of fructose into the bloodstream, as well as somewhat moderate insulin release.
However, if you are overweight, have high blood pressure or high blood sugar, it would probably be wise to avoid most fruits until you have these problems under control.
I. Basic Eating Plan for High Triglycerides
To a great degree, triglyceride production is stimulated by alcohol and sugar. Therefore, your first step in healthy eating means you need to eliminate or limit alcohol and sugar.
Banishing the sugar bowl from the table is an obvious step. However, there are many other sources where sugar is a primary ingredient, including:
concentrated sweets: table sugar (sucrose), cane sugar, brown sugar, Turbinado sugar, Demerara sugar, powdered sugar, honey, syrups (especially high fructose corn syrup as a substitute sweetener for sucrose-table sugar added to fruit juices, sodas, and other beverages), preserves, molasses, jams, jellies, and candies
desserts-baked goods: pies, cakes, cookies, crackers, frosting, pastries, doughnuts, ice cream, frozen yogurt, and regular or sweetened gelatin
beverages: fruit juices, fruit drinks, fruit punches, regular sodas, carbonated pop, colas, aid drinks, smoothies, sports drinks, sweetened coffee drinks, mocha, and chocolate drinks
high-sweet and sweet fruits (fresh or dried): grape (red and green), raisin, plum, fig, date, pineapple, apricot, melons (cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon), banana, orange
other foods: sweetened cereals, flavored yogurts, and sports or energy bars.
Alcohol such as
beer
wine
hard liquor
liqueurs (usually sweetened alcoholic liquors).
PLEASE NOTE: A reduction of alcohol intake is crucial in keeping triglycerides in check - just one drink can increase triglycerides in susceptible people. If you have elevated triglycerides and consume alcohol - a reduced intake or not drinking alcohol at all is strongly advised. (And after your triglyceride level returns to normal, you will have to follow a modified sugar and alcohol diet for the rest of your life).
Then you will want to limit your weekly intake of red meat and the way in which it is prepared, especially the frying process. The meat you do eat needs to be in smaller portions and either broiled or roasted.
The same cooking method will apply also to poultry (turkey, chicken). Further, the poultry you buy should preferably be free-range birds.
The third step in your new eating plan will be the addition of more dark green leafy vegetables.
Positive Reaction
Although the dietary restrictions advised to help lower triglycerides may seem hard, it is heartening to realize you can achieve significant reductions without medication - if you put your mind to it.
On Tuesday, July 1, 2003, we received a letter from Alan O., which speaks for itself:
“I wanted to let you know about my success story in lowering my triglycerides by following your diet that you have on your web site.
“I am an active male of 39 years of age. I work out five days a week, three of those days consist of a tough cardio workout, the other two days consist of weight lifting. I ate a very low fat and low cholesterol diet.
“I had a lipitor blood screening done 10 weeks ago at the urging of a friend of mine. I got the results back and was shocked to find out that my triglycerides were 400 and my cholesterol was 221.
“I found your website on lowering triglycerides without drugs and decided to give it a try. After reading about the possible causes of high levels of tri's, I realized that I needed to cut out all alcohol drinking and limit my sugar intake.
“I was drinking a moderate amount of beer and mixed drinks every Friday and Saturday evenings and during the week, was unknowingly, consuming massive amounts of sugar with my fruit juices, low fat pop tarts and raisin bran cereal.
“For ten weeks:
I drank nothing but water during and in-between my meals.
I did have 1% milk with my Cheerios in the morning. The Cheerios took the place of the raisin bran cereal.
I cut out all alcohol consumption as well.
I had a water with a lemon wedge when I went out on the weekends.
I cut out all pastas and went to ground turkey & salmon for dinners.
“I had my blood drawn again last week and got my results today [July 1, 03]. My triglycerides went from 400 to 83 in ten weeks and my cholesterol went from 221 to 173.
“Thanks for the website program diet! It really works if you stay with it. I now have a new perspective on eating properly thanks to you.
Alan O.”
The testimonial above has been presented as a true story. However, it has not been reviewed and is the opinion of the listed individual.
II. Advanced Eating Plan for High Triglycerides
As Alan O. discovered, it is necessary to change your food habits and preferences by paying more attention to the type, amount, and quality of the foods you eat.
Re-educating your taste buds and re-programming your dietary patterns is not actually hard to do - if you do it right. One good way to do that - although this may require some preplanning - is to make your new food preferences delicious, and the experience fun.
You need to give serious consideration to the following optimal dietary guidelines. At first, they seem hard to follow. However, you do not have to make yourself a social outcast with most of your family and friends, by following all recommendations to the letter.
In fact, this is a relatively easy regimen to follow. One of our clients, Saul A. Hoffman, wrote: “This is the most succinct description of how to lower the triglyceride level I've heard or read. Many thanks! Now I'm confident I can lower my triglyceride level.”
Earlier in this chapter we listed all the forms of sugar to be avoided and the limiting of these sugars is critical! However, there are other forms of sugar, including sugar substitutes, which need elimination:
Trans fatty acids (all fried foods and margarine)
Aspartame * (NutraSweet or Equal) - for general health
Sucralose ** (Splenda) - for general health
MSG - artificial chemical (may not be listed in ingredients)
All artificial preservatives and chemicals, if possible
* Aspartame - the technical name for brand names, such as NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, and Equal-Measure - is the common food additive found in thousands of products such as diet soda, yogurt, and over-the-counter medicines. However, this sugar substitute – in fact, a neurotoxin (a chemical poison) - should never have been approved for consumption as it poses a public health threat.
Aspartame accounts for over 75 percent of the adverse reactions to food additives reported to the US FDA. A few of the 90 (!) different documented symptoms caused by the components of aspartame include: headaches/migraines, dizziness, seizures, nausea, numbness, muscle spasms, weight gain (it actually increases appetite!), rashes, depression, fatigue, irritability, tachycardia, insomnia, vision problems, hearing loss, heart palpitations, breathing difficulties, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, loss of taste, tinnitus, vertigo, memory loss, and joint pain.
** Sucralose – is a relatively new artificial sweetener. It is a high-intensity sugar substitute which is 50 percent sweeter than aspartame, but less toxic than aspartame. It is sold under the name Splenda™. It is non-caloric and about 600 times sweeter than sucrose (white table sugar), alredy used in a variety of products. In the United States it is approved for the use in 15 food and beferage categories. However, sucralose is not proven safe, nor does it provide any benefit to the public. The only people who benefit from sucralose are the corporations making and using it. It does not help with weight loss, on the contrary it may stimulate appetite. Nor has it been shown to be safe for the environment and, finaly, there are no long-term (12-24 months) human studies on sucralose, similar to the studies undertaken for aspartame several years ago. In fact, its regular use may contribute to serious chronic immunological or neurological disorders.
Further, we recommend you eat less fruit for they are usually high in sugar.
Fresh and dried fruit such as grapes, red and green, raisins, plums, figs, dates, pineapple, apricot are all high in sugar, too.
Melons, such as cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon are also high in sugar.
Bananas and oranges are to be avoided for they prove to be highly allergenic, as well as high in sugar content.
Now, this does not mean eliminating all the fruits. You may choose to eat such fruits as strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, cranberry, lemon, lime, but only in moderation.
Then there are the fruit juices. Avoid all fresh, bottled, store-bought or home-made juices. Their sugar content is also very high.
Earlier in this chapter we recommended you plan on increasing your vegetable consumption. The following vegetables need to find a major place on your lunch or dinner table.
Kale, kohlrabi, Swiss chard, spinach
Dandelion greens, mustard greens, collard greens, green and red cabbage, broccoli
Red and green leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, endive
Chinese cabbage, bok choy, fennel (anise), celery, cucumbers
Cauliflower, escarole, zucchini, brussel sprouts
Onions, tomatoes, peppers, parsley.
The rule of thumb is - the greener vegetables, the better!
There are, however, a number of vegetables and grains that are low in nutritional values and/or high in sugar content:
Iceberg and head lettuce: low nutritional value
Carrots and underground vegetables, especially beet roots - high in sugar
White or red potatoes, beets - high in sugar
Corn: popcorn, chips (it is a grain, not a vegetable; any food that has corn in top five ingredients)
Most grains - especially wheat (including durham flour and semolina), rye, barley
Lower other grains intake: rice (brown, short grain, and white), millet, spelt, kamut, oats, quinoa, teff, amaranth.
Then there is chewing gum, which is a source of sugar or artificial sweeteners and wastes digestive enzymes.
Your meal plans should also include healthy fats – yes, fat can be good for you! These include Omega-3 Fatty Acids, DHA and EPA:
Cod liver oil - especially during the winter, early spring and late fall months
High quality fish oil - preferably in capsules (standard size 90/180 mg of EPA and 60/120 mg of DHA)
Organic flax seeds (not flax oil) - preferably freshly ground and, mixed with salads or sprinkled on vegetables.
There are, however, some oils which need to be avoided. These are ALL vegetable seed oils which are high in omega-6 fatty acids. The exception is cold pressed extra virgin olive oil for salads only, for cooking or stir-frying use virgin coconut oil.
Beverages:
Drink water only – it needs to be the beverage of choice. You may choose:
Spring water or filtered
Well water is generally OK
Drink water at room temperature, not chilled or iced, it shuts down the digestive system.
Lemon and lime juice can be added from time to time for a flavor change
Daily intake: Ideally, one quart for every 50 pounds of body weight is the goal for you>
However, the following beverages need to be eliminated from your eating plan:
Tap water - for general health
Softened or distilled water
Coffee, tea, colas, diet drinks
Milk, especially skim. You can get vitamin D from supplements or sun exposure, while calcium can come from green vegetables or supplements.
So what does this leave you with in the beverage department? In addition to water, vegetable juices are another option:
Freshly processed vegetable juice
Green tea (very limited amounts due to high fluoride content; accumulated by tea leaves from pollution of soil and air, fluoride can also adversely affect the beneficial action of individual antioxidants found in green tea).
Eat Protein
There are many protein foods to be enjoyed with your vegetables, including:
Meats, preferably grass fed (not grain fed) REAL beef, game meats (venison, buffalo, lamb), free range poultry (chicken, turkey, ostrich)
Fish - with caution due to possible mercury contamination, preferably summer flounder, fresh, ocean-caught Alaskan salmon, Arctic char (similar to salmon), croaker, sardines, anchovies, haddock, tilapia
Eggs - organic ONLY; if poached or sunny-side up (never scrambled!) 3-6 per week, every other day; if raw (Rocky-style) 6-12 per week, every other day
Seeds - raw only, unsalted, whole or ground up: sunflower, pumpkin, sesame (or tahini), flax (or flax meal)
Nuts - raw only, unsalted, whole or ground up (nut butter): cashews, Brazil nuts, almonds and in limited quantities, pecans.
The foods to be avoided in your eating plan are:
Pork in all its forms: ham, most bacon, pork roast and chops
Shellfish: shrimp, lobster, crabs, clams
Peanuts – along with any food that contains peanuts.
Beans and Legumes
While beans and legumes are nutritious, in limited quantities, they are not a complete source of protein and are high in carbohydrates. Beans, but not lentils, need soaking for 48-72 hours, rinsing then every 12 hours. They can then be cooked for 8-12 hours in a crock-pot.
If, however, you have to use canned beans, limit their usage, for they have less nutritional value than those cooked fresh. These beans should be purchased from a health food store and organic in source.
The foods to be avoided are:
All soy, unless fermented or sprouted. This includes tofu, soy nuts, isolated soy protein (ISP) - soy milk, soy protein powder, soy flour.
Only miso and tempeh, which is a fermented soy, and soy sprouts are acceptable, and are usually available in a health food store.
Positive Reaction
On Tuesday, January 28, 2003, we received a letter from Osmo S. Laakso, which speaks for itself:
"I had a problem with high triglycerides: 570 [mg/dL] last April, brought them down to 240 [mg/dL] by August. My doctor said, that's not good enough, we will have to go on medication.
"I then asked him what I needed to do instead of medication. He informed me, that I would have to drop 20 pounds at least. This was mid October 2002. There was no diet for my needs.
"I went on the Internet and found your nutritional triglycerides reduction website. I printed it and read it several times and kept with it and the suggestions that you gave.
"On Jan. 8/03 I had my blood work. My doctor called me on the phone and asked what had happened, everything was down well in the normal range.
"HDL was the only one at the bottom end at 39 and should have been somewhere in the high 40's, but he felt that given a little more time it would also be okay.
My triglycerides dropped [from 240 mg/dL] to 108 [mg/dL] which was fantastic.
"I'm now at 188 [mg/dL] and hope to drop another 10 pounds. Blood pressure has dropped to lower numbers but not enough yet to cut back on medication.
"Thank you for your website and its suggestions.
Sincerely,
Osmo S. Laakso (72 years), Media, PA"
The testimonial above has been presented as a true story. However, it has not been reviewed and is the sole opinion of the listed individual.
If You Don't Want or Need to Lose Weight...
The foods outlined above will generally cause a weight loss. However, if you do not want or need to lose weight, you can increase your intake of the following foods:
squash
low-sweet fruits, such strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, cranberry, lemon, lime
seeds
long grain brown rice (if fried, with NO oil - as the rice structure changes, the rice sugar is released more slowly)
quinoa
millet
yams, and
shredded unsweetened coconut, which can be added to some of your meals to increase caloric intake.
Change Is Difficult
Transformation is usually stressful, even for a healthy person. Stressed-out and probably confused, you cannot be expected to comply instantly with all the necessary dietary changes.
You may, however, begin with a more liberal plan doing a little at a time; then moving on to a more stringent program. The end result may take longer to achieve, but you will most likely stay on your plan long enough to attain your desired goals.
Or you can start with a more limiting program and then gradually ease into a more lenient one, as tolerated. In both cases, you will be in control of those changes saving yourself much frustration and – time.
Although the dietary restrictions advised to help lower triglycerides may seem hard, it is heartening to realize you can achieve significant reductions without medication - if you put your mind to it.
One Day at a Time
By deciding to reduce your intake or eliminate the foods that may be causing your problems, you will take the first significant step towards better health. Knowing the “right” foods to eat can make an amazing difference in your lifestyle and allow you to view it as an adventure in health management.
Taking this adventure one day at a time will make the elimination of reactive or addictive foods much easier and lead to a fully successful recovery. In time, you will be able to enjoy most of your “prohibited” foods again – in moderation, of course.
High Blood Triglycerides? Call 1. 705. 876. 9357 (US/Can)
Monday - Friday: 10:00 am - 3:00 pm EST (Weekends & Holidays Excluded)
