The Medical Nutrition and Nutrition Entrepreneurs dietetic practice groups of the American Dietetic Association provide medical nutrition therapy based on your diagnosis. They can take your food history and make recommendations to lower your triglycerides. Dietitians often have their own private practice nutrition counseling services in addition to services provided in a clinic or hospital. You can find a dietitian at the American Dietetic Association. Include your zip code or city / state, the type of service you want (individual consultation) and expertise needed.

Ask you doctor what your blood sugar was. Often a very high triglyceride level like yours can be caused by undiagnosed diabetes. Depending on when you had your blood sugar tested (fasting versus after a meal) may affect whether or not any abnormal blood sugar level showed up, especially if you have a minor abnormal glucose tolerance.

Eliminate all simple sugars including the hard candy and alcohol to reduce triglycerides. Switch to a sugar free hard candy. Some contain sorbitol or manitol, which can cause gas or diarrhea if eaten to excess. It may take 4 weeks or more to get down to normal levels after abstaining from these foods.

Your cholesterol is way too high as well. Your cholesterol should be below 200. Cholesterol doesn't respond as quickly as triglycerides to diet or lifestyle changes. Being active is not the same as getting regular exercise that elevates your heart rate for 30 minutes 5 times per week. Start a regular exercise program.

Did your doctor do HDL, LDL and VLDL levels? Would bet your LDL (cholesterol) and VLDL (triglycerides) levels are elevated.

Your body weight is in a healthy range as is your BMI (body mass index). Congrats on quitting smoking. It is the best thing you could do for your family's health and yours.

Now, with regards to your food choices. Why don't you eat fruit and vegetables? No time, habit or taste? Does the cook in your house like to prepare vegetables and fruits with meals? Your children learn by your example and will probably not like fruits or vegetables either. It's called modeling food behaviors. If you don't like cooked vegetables, try eating raw or juiced veggies. If you don't like fruit, try drinking real juice, not the fruit drinks that are mostly sugar and water. You should aim to eat 5 fruits and vegetables per day. Eating a lot of meat and no vegetables or fruits will cause you more than elevated fats in your blood. Studies show that people who don't eat fruits and vegetables also have an increased risk of cancer. How's that for a motivator?

Your meat should be limited to 3 ounces twice per day and you should change to eating broiled or roasted poultry or fish rather than fried meats.

Also, try out the Healthy Body Calculator. If you put in your height, weight and nutrition goals (i.e. control fat grams to < 30% of calories), it will calculate how many grams of fat you should eat based on your weight goal (i.e. maintain weight). If your weight changes, come back and re-enter your data to get a new calculation based on a different weight.

I would suggest you talk to a Registered Dietitian who could assist with some diet changes and meal plans. There is probably one available in your doctor's medical clinic or local hospital.

You are correct. Your triglycerides and SGPT tests are too high. Your SGPT should be 4 - 36 U / L. SGPT is a liver enzyme and when it is elevated, which alcohol can do, it indicates possible liver damage. Your liver enzymes should come down rather quickly if you do not drink any alcohol. If you continue drinking, you will probably end up with permanent liver damage or cirrhosis.

Also, your triglycerides should be less than 150 mg/dl. Your tests showed your triglycerides to be extremely high (1254 mg/dl). One possible reason for this is your alcohol consumption. Triglycerides are elevated with alcohol consumption.

If you know what your body fat percentage is try the Healthy Body Calculator. However, if you haven't had your body fat tested in the last month, your body fat may have increased and you should have it measured again before including body fat data. A healthy weight for you depends on what your body fat percentage is.

Congrats on a great exercise program! Have you considered adding strength training to your program?

Alcohol and sugar sweetened foods increase triglycerides. If you don't drink alcohol, then perhaps you eat sweets other than carbonated beverages?

Exercise usually increases HDL levels and considering your exercise program, I would think yours would be in a more optimal range of 35 - 70 mg / dl. Estrogen (not a consideration for males) or insulin therapy increase HDL's. Your LDL's are great though. Your blood lipids results seem a bit disproportionate to each other in particular the LDL and triglycerides. Have you talked to your doctor about your results and what does he / she say? Also, what is the lipid profile like for other members of your family like parents and siblings? Is there a family history of heart disease?

Is your blood glucose in normal ranges? Undiagnosed diabetes can cause an increase in triglycerides and a decrease in HDL's.

BTW, your healthy body weight range is 139 - 169 pounds. Depending on your percent body fat, you still could be about 7 pounds overweight. Though this would not contribute to your high triglycerides and low HDL's.

Have you been checked for diabetes? Often a high triglyceride level like yours points toward undiagnosed diabetes.

Triglycerides are affected by sugar and alcohol, not the fat content in your diet. Exercise can bring down blood sugar levels. Would suggest 30 minutes, 5 times per week.

Your cholesterol should be below 200, HDL cholesterol 30 - 80 mg/dl and LDL less than 130 mg/dl. Both your HDL and LDL are within normal ranges. What is your VLDL cholesterol?

To reduce the "bad" cholesterol (LDL) you should reduce the amount of saturated fat in your diet. Read the cholesterol & saturated fat topic for more details.

Your triglycerides are high and should be less than 150 mg/dl. Until your triglycerides come down below normal, you should avoid all alcohol, sugar and concentrated sweets including your daily mocha.

If you are exercising 3 to 5 times per week for at least 30 minutes, then you may want to talk to an exercise physiologist to tailor an exercise program for you. Exercise helps increase the "good" cholesterol HDL.

I guess that you may drink more than 2 alcoholic beverages daily (elevated triglycerides and SGPT). Did the life insurance company test your blood sugar and was the result within normal ranges of 70 - 110 mg/dl? You could also be an undiagnosed diabetic and triglycerides sometimes point in that direction as well.

Yes your triglycerides (VLDL cholesterol) are very high at 545. I would suggest a diabetic diet with no sugar or alcohol and 50 - 55% of calories from carbohydrates (mostly low fat starches). Triglycerides are really responsive to dietary changes and can come down rather quickly (1 - 3 months).

Your cholesterol is also high. Saturated fats (any animal product, coconut and palm kernel oils) and high cholesterol foods increase blood cholesterol (the LDL portion). Read the cholesterol & saturated fat topic also. Recent research suggests that high cholesterol foods, especially egg yolks may play a lesser role in increasing blood cholesterol. A 25% fat, low saturated fat diet should lower your LDL cholesterol.

The SGPT (ALT) is an enzyme produced by the liver. Normal ranges are 1 - 21 u/l and yours is elevated at 52. This occurs in hepatitis, cirrhosis of the liver (usually due to alcoholism) or cancer. I would suggest you eat only low fat foods which will limit the stress already on your liver and so that healthy liver cells are not replaced by fat which would reduce your liver's ability to function.

If you have not seen your doctor in a while, I would suggest a complete physical. Then I would ask your doctor to suggest a Registered Dietitian to help you plan a low fat/ low saturated fat diabetic, no sugar , no alcohol diet with your food preferences in mind. If you are overweight, then weight reduction would also be helpful.

Alcohol, sugars (fructose to glucose) and the liver processes fats. When alcohol (ethanol) is present in the blood, the liver prioritizes removing alcohol from the blood over other metabolic processes. The liver can detoxify about one ounce of alcohol per hour. (This is equivalent to 1 1/2 ounce of 80 proof alcohol or 12 ounces of beer or 4 ounces of wine.) Meanwhile, fats and glucose tends to be further processed into triglycerides which raises blood levels. High levels of circulating triglycerides is one risk factor in heart disease.

Any excess calories, irrelative of the source, from protein, fat or carbohydrate, are converted to fat, usually to triglycerides. If you consume sugar, then you do risk increasing your blood triglyceride levels.

The problem is the body prefers to run on glucose, not triglycerides. The sources of glucose are diet, liver, muscles and lean tissue (organs and lean tissue). Triglycerides are stored in adipose tissue (fat cells).

Congratulations on your lifestyle changes to improve your health. If your triglycerides are greater than 150 then, you should eliminate concentrated sweets and sugars from your diet.

In regards to shrimp, shellfish does contain cholesterol and twice as much as lobster and one third greater than crab. Shrimp contains 150 mg of cholesterol per 3 1/2 oz. The number of shrimp would depend on how large they are. Another way of thinking is that this amount of shrimp is equivalent to 70% of the cholesterol in 1 egg yolk. The current recommendations are to limit egg yolks to 4 per week. So substitute 142 grams (5 ounces) of shrimp for one of the egg yolks per week. An equivalent amount of hamburger (10% fat cooked well done) would have 105 milligrams of cholesterol. So red meat is not as high in cholesterol as shrimp. You choose.

Thanks for your suggestions. Since the audience I intended to reach is the general public, I usually don't go deep into the biochemistry.

Triglycerides are a fat found in your blood. It is a fat similar to cholesterol. A diet to lower cholesterol limits egg yolks and fatty meats. A diet to lower triglycerides omits alcohol and sugar.

Alcohol is absorbed through the lining of the stomach. It shuts off your liver from releasing sugar into your bloodstream. Since sugar is your main fuel, the body must turn to the next readily available fuel, blood fats. However, the calories from alcohol are turned into fat, so the fat levels in your blood go up.

Simple sugars like sugar, candy, pop and desserts seem to be the most readily available in stimulating triglyceride production. Complex carbohydrates like starch and cereal grains seem to have a lowering effect on triglycerides.

A normal blood triglyceride level is 40 to 150 milligrams. Persons with higher values are put on a sugar-free, alcohol-free diet. A significant drop in your triglyceride level to near normal should occur within three to six weeks if you strictly follow your diet. Your doctor may also advise you to cut down on fats and cholesterol and to lower weight if your cholesterol is also high.

After your triglyceride level goes back to normal, you may be able to ease up a bit and have one sweet and up to two cocktails per week. You will have to follow a modified sugar and alcohol diet for the rest of your life however.

An elevated triglyceride level is considered to significantly increase heart disease even though you don't find triglycerides plugging up your arteries. Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States.