Health Touches

In the little number your doctor gives you regarding your cholesterol (total cholesterol) lie measures of the types of cholesterol in your body. One is the HDL “good” cholesterol, one is for LDL “bad” cholesterol, and one is related to triglycerides. Different people have trouble with different types of cholesterol; some people’s HDL is too low, some people have elevated LDL, some people have high triglycerides, and some people have some combination of these situations.

The good new and bad news about triglycerides is this: it is the type of cholesterol that responds most to diet and exercise. In other words, you can directly influence your triglyceride levels through the choices you make. That’s good news if you have the desire to change your lifestyle and bad news if you happen to like what you eat and don’t want to change it.

Interestingly enough, two easy ways to reduce levels of triglycerides are to reduce intake of carbohydrates and alcohol. While it sounds counter intuitive to reduce carbohydrates in response to something that is related to fat, actually your body metabolizes carbohydrates in such a way that triglycerides get elevated. Relatively easy ways to reduce carbohydrates include switching to artificial sweeteners and reducing the amounts of bread, pasta, and potatoes in your diet.

Carbohydrates often serve the psychological function of being comfort foods. When choosing to reduce carbohydrates it is important to recognize when you crave carbohydrates because of psychological stress and to look for other ways to deal with that stress. A box of sugar free chocolates may help you to make this transition.

Another change that can be made relatively easily is to use some of the new forms of margarine that contain Omega-3 fatty acids and no trans fat. Using olive or canola oil can also help.

Try to eat plant-based foods that have a low caloric density. In other words, while bread is a plant-based food, one piece of bread has more calories in it than a whole bowl-full of vegetables. You can compromise: eat half the piece of bread and all your veggies so that you will not feel hungry an hour after you ate.

Finally, along with changes in the diet, it is important to increase exercise. While adding a formal period of time every day for exercise is a great idea you can also increase your activity level by how you park your car. If you are planning to shop at several stores in a shopping center, park your car by the one where you will be making the most purchases. Walk to the other stores. Keep your car from being dinged up by careless parkers: park where there are few other cars and walk to the store. You will actually save time because you will not be trolling for a parking place.

Even with lifestyle changes you may still have to take a prescription medication for your cholesterol levels. But you may be able to reduce the amount of medication and certainly any efforts you make towards diet and exercise will benefit you in many ways besides reducing triglycerides.