According to advocates of low carbohydrate diets a key benefit is the effect on triglycerides in the blood. The argument goes that a high level of triglycerides is linked to increased risk for coronary heart disease; low carb diets lower triglycerides; so low carb diets should lower the risk for heart disease. Sounds plausible enough, but is it true?
Blood lipids and heart disease risk
The approach to managing blood lipids to lower heart disease risk has evolved over time as our understanding of this complicated field has grown. Decades ago the focus was on lowering total cholesterol but this was later narrowed down to LDL-cholesterol – ‘bad’ cholesterol for the lay person. ‘Good’ HDL-cholesterol was considered protective and the balance between the bad and the good – the LDL/HDL ratio – came into use. More recently, the total cholesterol/HDL ratio has been considered to be a better measure as all non-HDL-cholesterol appears to increase heart disease risk.
What about triglycerides?
If you are interested in how triglycerides affect the risk for heart disease and how diet affects blood triglycerides look no further than the American Heart Association’s scientific statement Triglycerides and Cardiovascular Disease. You may need to allocate an afternoon as the paper is very comprehensive and has over 500 references.