While cholesterol gets all the limelight, I believe not enough is paid to Serum Triglycerides.

To put it simply, triglycerides are the amount of “fat” In the blood. You may wonder what’s the point of having fat in the blood? After all, the red blood cells do not have any mitochondria to use that fat energy.

Well the point is for the fat to be transported to tissues, which may utilize it for energy. High serum triglyceride levels indicate that the body is unable to utilize that fat hence leaving the triglycerides in the blood behind. This will be especially true in case someone is insulin resistant because fat cannot be burned in the presence of high insulin levels. This is exactly why, Type II diabetes/metabolic syndrome go hand-in-hand with hypertriglyceridemia.

While we have invented all kinds of fancy medication to lower triglycerides, simply adopting a low carbohydrate approach is an incredibly easy and cost effective way to approach this. It lowers the insulin levels and allows the body to uptake and burn more fat from the blood.

TG/ HDL ratio is actually a very potent marker of insulin resistance & Cardiovascular disease risk.