carbs and triglycerides

Just had a b-test and found my triglycerides levels are through the roof.

Gonna see my doc later this week but meantime I'm circling the fish stall like a dolphin with the munchies, cutting out the yellow cheese and chocolate (tastes great on a sandwich).

My question is whether at this point in time it is just necessary to reduce all carb consumption or just refined stuff like sugar. As you may know, Poland invented potatoes and I eat a truck load daily (and only doing moderate exercise).

Any advice gratefully digested (as long as it's low-carb/low fat)

Everyone seems to have a different take on diets.
Refined carbs and sugar really have nothing good to offer us, and should be avoided, in my opinion.
An occasional piece of fruit should satisfy your sweet tooth.
As for carbs, I get mine from vegetables and whole grain sources.
I guess a good rule to follow is to only eat foods that are as close to their natural state as possible.

Bacically, rather than thinking 'simple' and 'complex' in terms of carbs, you should go by G.I. (glycemic index). The GI level (low to high) of all food stuffs is freely available on the web- just let your fingers do the googling.

Lets get this straight - carbohydrate is not the enemy. A balanced diet that includes unrefined carbs as a source of energy is ideal. Ketogenic diets like the Atkins plan might be fine if you want to drop dead at 50 the buffest corpse in the boneyard, or maybe if you live in an igloo on the ice flows of Northern Alaska, but for normal life, avoiding refined sugars and white flower products is probably enough to allow us a healthy relationship with energy rich food.

I wish that I could make myself eat more veggies. I like them ok , but I tend to have too much meat in my diet. As far as my sweet tooth goes..... I'm out of control sometimes!!!
I have noticed that when I cut back on sugar that my disposition is better. I'm much easier to be around. Say it slowly.... mellow...out...Mark. Don't do the dew. Drink juice.
I really need to cut back on the carbs, but I don't feel strong working out unless I have some carbs before I go to the dojo.

keep traing, Mark

I never liked veggies very much either.
My better half puts them on the grill when possible, and that makes them more palateable for me.
Grilled asparagus, squash, zuchinni, eggplant, ect...
Also, I'll put some cheese on them, just a little.
I hear what you're saying about the energy factor. I try to eat a piece of fruit before training, and that helps.

Thanks for the info guys.

As ever, Cord, a font of wisdom.

My random thoughts:

If your metabolism is balanced you shouldn't have a "sweet tooth" that needs to be satisfied by anything, including fruit. Actually, cravings of any kind will be minimized.

I am a strong believer in getting carbs only from fruits and veggies. If you are going to get them from grains -- get them from whole, unprocessed or minimally processed grains. This does not mean whole grain bread or whole grain cereal. Those are still very processed. It means rice, rolled oats, barley, quinoa. Even so, I suggest only one serving of grains a day. And a small serving at that.

I think a lot of my problem is boredom, a works vending machine which has coffee and choclotae machines next to each other and basically eating too quickly (as my wife pointed out).

Agreed.
Now that I haven't been eating processed foods with sugar for a while now, I find that I don't miss them at all, and feel no need to have a "cheat day".

Funny thing, even having been off the sugar for a fortnight, I had a handful of dried fruit, nuts and raisins last night and felt the sugar kick.

Fun thing, my doc agreed that the fish was good for bringing the triglyc down, but added a caveat... I pre-empted hiom, "You're going to tell me that I shouldn't eat fish too much because i have gout!", "Yes, it seems all the stuff you should be eating you can't!"

All good fun.

Yeah...it seems like you become real sensitive to it when you haven't had it for awhile.

How does honey fit into all this?

Well, my doc gave me something to get the uric acid down (which causes the gout)and so fish was less of a problem... I cut out my morning cheese butties, swapped for museli and natural yoghurt (of course, one has to check there's no sugar even in natural yoghurt!), mega cut back on the chocs and an attempt at cutting back on meat...

I commented to my doc that sugar-free chocolate has more calories than the regular stuff. His reply...

"You know, the carbs and calories are only a small part of the picture regarding nutrition... I wouldn't worry too much about them if your concentrating on lowering your fat and sugar intake by cutting out certain things. Just remember to try for more fresh stuff, veg, fruit etc and less refined stuff."

So far, the triglycerides and cholesterol are falling nicely and I'm losing a couple of pounds every couple of weeks without doing much too drastic things.

When this happened to me my doctor basically said "eat less stuff that's white and lose a little weight".

About twenty pounds, and simply eating less starches got me to roughly "normal".

Yeah, it's funny how I've lost more weight in about 2 months of cutting back on the cheese, than 2 months of gym work.