Cholesterol and triglycerides are both different forms of fat that are found in the blood stream. Elevated levels of either cholesterol or triglycerides are high risk factors for heart disease, heart attacks and stroke. Although there are some unique risk factors that contribute to raising blood levels of either triglycerides or cholesterol, they mostly share the same risk factors. For the same reason, those who have high cholesterol levels almost always have high trigylceride levels too and vise versa. Just to note, that when we refer to high cholesterol here, we are always referring to LDL cholesterol, other wise known as ‘bad’ cholesterol. There are other kinds of cholesterol that are actually good for us.
Exercise
If you are mostly interested in how to lower triglyceride levels naturally then regular exercise is one of the best methods. This is because excess calories from the food we eat, and especially excess calories in the form of sugar, is often turned into triglycerides in the blood. So the simple equation is that exercise burns calories which = less calories turning into triglycerides. Total cholesterol levels are almost always lower in those who exercise regularly too.
Saturated Fat
Too much saturated fat in the diet is one of the more well known risk factors for developing high cholesterol. However, triglycerides levels are even more sensitive to excess saturated fat in the diet. Too much red meat and diary products that are not reduced fat are, by far, the main foods responsible for the most amount of saturated fat in the average persons diet. Swapping out red meat for fish and white meat and using reduced fat dairy products will go a long way to helping lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels. There are other dietary choices too that are great foods that lower cholesterol naturally.