When it comes to heart health, most people focus on cholesterol. But triglycerides are just as important. Triglycerides are a type of fat in the blood that our bodies use for energy. High triglycerides can raise your risk of heart disease by leading to a buildup of small, cholesterol-rich particles in the artery walls. This can trigger inflammation and contribute to artery-blocking plaque formation. Cutting back on fat might seem like the obvious first choice. However, one of the top contributors to high triglycerides is actually sugar-sweetened drinks, like soda, sweet tea, syrup-spiked coffees and sports drinks. The link is so strong that research has found that people who drink just 12 ounces of sugar-sweetened beverages per day are 48% more likely to have elevated triglycerides.
That’s a lot! So, we spoke to registered dietitians to find out how cutting back on sugar-sweetened drinks can help lower high triglycerides. Here’s what they told us, plus realistic strategies to improve your triglycerides for a healthier heart.
Research has found that high sugar-sweetened beverage consumption is strongly linked to insulin resistance. That may sound like it’s just a blood sugar issue, but insulin resistance may also influence triglyceride levels. How so? While sugary drinks are loaded with sugar, they rarely contain fat, protein or fiber to help slow glucose digestion and absorption. As a result, glucose is quickly absorbed into the bloodstream, resulting in a rapid spike in blood sugar and insulin. Over time, this can lead to insulin resistance, which alters lipid metabolism, leading to high triglycerides, low HDL-cholesterol and increased small, dense LDL-cholesterol particles. All of these can set the stage for heart disease.
Even though triglycerides are a type of fat, they’re formed primarily from eating excess carbohydrates and sugars. Consider what happens after drinking a 12-ounce can of cola. Its 37 grams of pure sugar are far more than your body can handle in one sitting, especially when combined with other carbohydrates and sugars from a meal or snack. What does the body do with all that sugar? “Excess sugar is stored in the body as glycogen. Once these stores are full, our liver converts excess sugar into fatty acids, and combined with other molecules, they form triglycerides,” explains Melissa Jaeger, RD, LD.
Many sweetened beverages are made with high fructose corn syrup, which may be even more harmful to your blood fat and glucose levels than table sugar. In one study, adults who drank three fructose-rich beverages daily for 10 weeks had higher levels of triglyceride-transporting particles in their bloodstreams than volunteers who consumed the same amount of glucose-rich drinks.
What, exactly, makes fructose so problematic? When we consume excessive amounts of fructose, like from HFCS-sweetened drinks, the liver turns all that fructose into fat through a process called de novo lipogenesis. This happens when there is more sugar available than the liver can store as carbohydrate, and it occurs more rapidly with fructose than with glucose consumption.
Deep belly fat, known as visceral fat, can spell all kinds of trouble for your health. Visceral fat releases fat into the bloodstream quickly, whereas fat stored under the skin (like in the hips or thighs) is stored and released much more slowly. This makes abdominal fat especially harmful, increasing the risk for numerous metabolic health conditions, including elevated triglycerides.
Research has found that greater added sugar intake may be a powerful driver of visceral fat storage. For instance, one study found people who consumed lots of added sugars from sugar-sweetened beverages and other sources were 27% more likely to have abdominal obesity and were also 28% more prone to obesity.
Sugar-sweetened beverages are our top source of added sugars, delivering an estimated 21% of our total sugar intake. One important reason: “It’s easy to over-consume calories from sugary drinks,” says Mandy Tyler, M.Ed., RD, CSSD. “Although they may taste refreshing, they don’t tend to fill you up.” Consider how you feel after eating a piece of cake versus drinking a glass of sweet tea. It’s much quicker—and easier—to drink that sugar in liquid form.
“While our bodies may use some of the sugar in drinks for an immediate source of energy, these drinks also deliver extra calories with little to no nutritional value,” says Jaeger. Sugary drinks like soda, sweet tea, energy drinks, sugary lattes and even some fruit-flavored beverages often replace healthier options like water, milk or nutrient-rich smoothies.
Regularly drinking sugar-sweetened beverages can be a major contributor to high triglycerides. Their excessive sugar can elevate triglycerides by increasing blood sugar, insulin and belly fat and by providing more sugar and fructose than your body can efficiently metabolize in one sitting. In addition, sugary drinks are easy to consume in excess and usually replace more nutritious alternatives. That doesn’t mean you can never enjoy a small glass of sweet tea or a soda. But limiting sugary drinks, combined with lifestyle changes like limiting or avoiding alcohol, exercising and eating more fatty fish and fiber-rich foods, can help keep your triglycerides in check and protect your heart.
