When you take in more calories than your body needs, your liver converts the extra calories into fat molecules called triglycerides. It doesn't matter whether the extra calories come from carbohydrates, fats or proteins. After you eat your blood sugar levels rise, which causes your pancreas to release insulin that helps the liver convert sugar to triglycerides. If your blood sugar levels rise higher than normal, you produce large amounts of insulin which cause your liver to make even more triglycerides. Insulin also lowers blood levels of the good HDL cholesterol that helps prevent heart attacks. People with high blood levels of triglycerides often store most of their fat in their bellies rather than their hips, and have low blood levels of the good HDL cholesterol that prevents heart attacks.

If your triglyceride level is above the normal 150, it means that you eat too much food or have high blood insulin levels which can cause heart attacks. Having moderately elevated blood levels of triglycerides does not increase you risk for a heart attack unless you also have low blood levels of the good HDL cholesterol. To keep blood triglyceride levels from rising too high, the good HDL cholesterol carries triglycerides back to the liver to remove them from the bloodstream. So blood levels of triglycerides do not increase your chances of developing a heart attack until you produce so much that they lower blood levels of the good HDL cholesterol and clog up your arteries.

You can usually reduce blood triglyceride level just by eating less food and avoiding foods that cause the highest rise in blood sugar, such as bakery products, pasta, and foods with added sugar.

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Dr. Gabe Mirkin has been a radio talk show host for 25 years and practicing physician for more than 40 years; he is board certified in four specialties, including sports medicine. Read or listen to hundreds of his fitness and health reports at http://www.DrMirkin.com

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