On Wed, 13 Oct 1999, Midas Gold wrote:

> A friend of mine is curious about whether or not following a
> paleo-type diet would help with high triglycerides (drug therapy has
> been so far unsuccessful).  Since I have a poor grasp of how high
> triglycerides fit into the whole picture, can someone please share an
> article or something that would be helpful to my friend?

A paleo diet may be very useful in reducing triglycerides (TGL).
In human beings, triglycerides are mainly produced in the liver
from glucose or protein.  When you hear about sugar or protein
being "converted to fat", the conversion to TGL is the first
step.  If you are eating more sugar or protein than you can use,
the excess gets converted to TGL, which eventually gets stored in
your fat cells.  In the meantime, your blood TGL levels will rise
if this imbalance is sustained.  It is my understanding that
dietary fat is not handled in this manner, but rather as free
fatty acids (FFA).  By cutting carbs and keeping protein servings
moderate, the result should be lowered TGL.  Heavy alcohol
consumption also tends to raise TGL levels, for the very same
reason.  The alcohol is processed in much the same way as sugar.

This is one aspect of paleo diet that has worked very well for
me, dropping my TGL from 250 or so to under 100.

Todd Moody
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