Why are triglycerides listed as an ingredient in some foods/drinks?

[Cooking4Fun]

What role do triglycerides play in food science? I know in the blood one doesn't want high triglycerides made from sugars, but what are straight up triglycerides used for as a listed ingredient?

 

[blissful]

Triglycerides are a type of fat found in our blood.
They are created when eating more food=energy than is necessary and that energy is stored in fat cells. When you need the energy, the triglycerides provide it. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases...olesterol/in-depth/triglycerides/art-20048186

Triglycerides are not an ingredient in your food. Triglycerides are created when food is quickly digested, from sugar, processed foods, fruit juice, alcohol, anything that digests quickly. To slow that digestion adding vegetables, fruit, grains, nuts, seeds, legumes will slow down the digestion so that triglyceride numbers will be lower.

High triglycerides are often a sign of other conditions that increase the risk of heart disease and stroke, including obesity and metabolic syndrome — a cluster of conditions that includes too much fat around the waist, high blood pressure, high triglycerides, high blood sugar and abnormal cholesterol levels.

Are you thinking of transfat as an ingredient in food?

 

[GotGarlic]

Are you maybe thinking of mono- or diglycerides? From What Are Monoglycerides and Are They Safe to Consume?

Mono- and diglycerides help oil and water to blend. Because of this, they can be used to improve the texture or consistency of foods. For example, they help:

improve the consistency of margarine
prevent the oil in peanut butter from separating, give ice cream a creamier consistency, reduce stickiness in candy.
In processed meats and sausages, they help to ensure fat is well-distributed.

They’re added to baked goods to slow the staling process. They also improve texture, ensuring bread is doughy and elastic.

 

[taxlady]

Thank you @blissful and @GotGarlic. I was left scratching my head as to how to reply to this thread.

 

[Cooking4Fun]

Triglycerides are a type of fat found in our blood.
They are created when eating more food=energy than is necessary and that energy is stored in fat cells. When you need the energy, the triglycerides provide it. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases...olesterol/in-depth/triglycerides/art-20048186

Triglycerides are not an ingredient in your food. Triglycerides are created when food is quickly digested, from sugar, processed foods, fruit juice, alcohol, anything that digests quickly. To slow that digestion adding vegetables, fruit, grains, nuts, seeds, legumes will slow down the digestion so that triglyceride numbers will be lower.


Are you thinking of transfat as an ingredient in food?

 

[blissful]

That is very interesting, mixed triglycerides on a food label. First time I've ever seen that.

Vegetable fats and oils are all triglycerides, which contain a glycerol (

) three carbon "backbone" with 3 long chain "fatty acids" attached through ester linkages, as in the figure below. The actual shape is shown in the Jmol model, which can be rotated with the mouse. Triglycerides are called "fats" when they're solids or semisolids, and "oils" when they're liquids.

3.2.3: Everyday Life- Why Fats Don't Add Up on Food Nutrition Labels

chem.libretexts.org

Then I would go with mixed triglycerides as fat and oil. I think when a nutrition label's ingredient lists them, they are purposefully not listing the specific type of fat or oil, or being vague, which is very strange and evasive.

 

[pictonguy]

That is very interesting, mixed triglycerides on a food label. First time I've ever seen that.

3.2.3: Everyday Life- Why Fats Don't Add Up on Food Nutrition Labels

chem.libretexts.org

Then I would go with mixed triglycerides as fat and oil. I think when a nutrition label's ingredient lists them, they are purposefully not listing the specific type of fat or oil, or being vague, which is very strange and evasive.

I'll go along with that. I've also never seen "mixed triglycerides" on an ingredient label.

Maybe not so strange, science is science but generally never used in this context, or at least I don't remember seeing them referred to this way before.

 

[pictonguy]

What role do triglycerides play in food science? I know in the blood one doesn't want high triglycerides made from sugars, but what are straight up triglycerides used for as a listed ingredient?

Anyway, yeah elevated trigs in the blood is not ideal. High triglycerides is an indicator that someone is consuming a lot of sugar and most trigs are stored from fructose metabolism which is around half of conventional sucrose. It's a little more complicated than that but these stored trigs are also stored as VLDL which are the problematic aspect of LDL, not what we want happening within the body and generally when a person has elevated triglycerides they also have lower HDL and their inflammatory markers are also higher when testing their CRP which is their C-reactive protein blood marker, which these are by far the best indicators for heart disease without getting a coronary calcium scan. Most people that consume the SAD diet and have Insulin resistance, diabetes, fatty liver will have this trifecta, which should be monitored very closely imo.

 

[Cooking4Fun]

That is very interesting, mixed triglycerides on a food label. First time I've ever seen that.

3.2.3: Everyday Life- Why Fats Don't Add Up on Food Nutrition Labels

chem.libretexts.org

Then I would go with mixed triglycerides as fat and oil. I think when a nutrition label's ingredient lists them, they are purposefully not listing the specific type of fat or oil, or being vague, which is very strange and evasive.

Know what the purpose might be in Gatorade or a gluten-free recipe?

 

[blissful]

I don't know but will guess. In some foods oils are used on the machinery to make the items move more smoothly on conveyer belts, or not stick to pans or racks-dried fruits, nuts, baked goods. Sometimes in liquids there are oils added for mouth feel or as an emulsifier so they don't separate.

 

[Kathleen]

Your body will make triglycerides. The trouble happens when it makes or takes in too many of them.

Triglycerides are composed of three fatty acids held together by a naturally-occurring alcohol called glycerol - so THREE fatty acids aka TRI attached to the glycerol - triglyceride. They are used to transport fatty acids and storying fatty acids in your body. You get triglycerides in two ways: Your body can make them or they are given up by the food choices we make. I can give the biochemical breakdown or process if anyone wishes, but the Cliff Note version is that these molecules are HUGE and your intestines cannot absorb them as is. So they are broken down and are reabsorbed by your intestinal cells before being sent out in your blood stream in little packages throughout your body. Your bodily tissue cells will then remove the triglycerides from the shipping packages to use the molecules to burn for energy or store them as fat. (Fun fact, these shipping packages called chylomicrons are plentiful after a meal. Since they are full of fatty triglyceride molecules, the lab makes you fast for 12 hours before conducting a lipid panel blood test!)

If the triglyceride levels are consistently high, there is "too much fat" in your body which can lead to cardiovascular disease or even pancreatitis. OR it can also lead to complications such as Type II diabetes, kidney diseases, etc. Eating sugary food and drinks, refined sugars and grains, alcohol, and high calorie foods can all lead to high triglycerides. (So no twinkies and coca-cola if you need to bring them down!) Most of us know what to eat to bring them down. Another fun fact, studies have shown the daily oatmeal whether it is overnight oats or regular oatmeal can help get your numbers moving in the right direction as well as help with cholesterol.

Now I feel guilty for my diet of donuts today. Geesh.

 

[dragnlaw]

Oh boy, haven't been a very good Oatmeal Eater lately.

Guess I'd better get back on the wagon!

 

[pictonguy]

Your body will make triglycerides. The trouble happens when it makes or takes in too many of them.

Triglycerides are composed of three fatty acids held together by a naturally-occurring alcohol called glycerol - so THREE fatty acids aka TRI attached to the glycerol - triglyceride. They are used to transport fatty acids and storying fatty acids in your body. You get triglycerides in two ways: Your body can make them or they are given up by the food choices we make. I can give the biochemical breakdown or process if anyone wishes, but the Cliff Note version is that these molecules are HUGE and your intestines cannot absorb them as is. So they are broken down and are reabsorbed by your intestinal cells before being sent out in your blood stream in little packages throughout your body. Your bodily tissue cells will then remove the triglycerides from the shipping packages to use the molecules to burn for energy or store them as fat. (Fun fact, these shipping packages called chylomicrons are plentiful after a meal. Since they are full of fatty triglyceride molecules, the lab makes you fast for 12 hours before conducting a lipid panel blood test!)

If the triglyceride levels are consistently high, there is "too much fat" in your body which can lead to cardiovascular disease or even pancreatitis. OR it can also lead to complications such as Type II diabetes, kidney diseases, etc. Eating sugary food and drinks, refined sugars and grains, alcohol, and high calorie foods can all lead to high triglycerides. (So no twinkies and coca-cola if you need to bring them down!) Most of us know what to eat to bring them down. Another fun fact, studies have shown the daily oatmeal whether it is overnight oats or regular oatmeal can help get your numbers moving in the right direction as well as help with cholesterol.

Now I feel guilty for my diet of donuts today. Geesh.

Nice post Kathleen. Are you in the medical field, just curious.

I just want to expand on your post.

Sweet taste was an evolutionary adaption of early hominins and homo sapiens where it was an advantage as it allowed them to store fat for times of scarcity and limited food availability especially for people living above the 39th parallel where winter was a pretty devastating food scarcity time event. It's part of the "optimal foraging theory" where foragers gathered food sources that created the least amount of time for the most calories collected.

Humans seek out natural sources of sweet like fruit, berries and honey which were also seasonal and only available for very short periods of time when compared over a 1 year time line. This plus our adaption from our closest ancestor, chimpanzees to actually put on body fat in the 20 to 30% mark where chimps are only 3 or 4% body fat allowed us to go quite a while, weeks actually or more without eating anything, so it's a big adaptive advantage when humans decided to populate the globe around 300,000 years ago.

The advent of agriculture did change the way humans consumed sugar, especially with the cultivation of crops like sugarcane and sugar beet. Where that adaption was an advantage it's now in modern times the main cause of non communicable diseases in most populations that consume a diet that closely resembles anything that looks like the Standard American Diet where over 70% of the population consume this diet which also comprises of over 75% from processed foods with 60% being ultra processed foods mostly comprised of refined carbs, sugar, salt and refined seed oils.

The human body is not designed to handle the chronic intake levels of sugar which overwhelms the liver which causes pretty much all the non communicable diseases associated with it like insulin resistance, fatty liver, PCOS, high blood pressure, cancer, cardiovascular disease, dementia and lately Alzheimer's.

This is of course pretty easily preventable if we do a few things, and one is consume sugar in moderation from natural sources, consume less processed foods and more foods from natural sources. Basically consume a whole food diet as much as you can and personally I default to the 80/20 rule and that works for me, and I'm also low carb.

The other point I want to make is on your comment "studies have shown the daily oatmeal whether it is overnight oats or regular oatmeal can help get your numbers moving in the right direction as well as help with cholesterol."

All of these studies are epidemiological, so basically observational, which is fine if it generates more studies or conversation but to make health claims is probably not really warranted. Yeah, lucky charms and fruit loops with marshmallows was probably not the smartest thing the AHA got behind and promoted as healthy. Anyway back to oatmeal. We need to look through the lens of context and dosage. If oatmeal is replacing a diet where the person is consuming a really terrible SAD diet, then yes consuming oats will generate improved blood markers. Not so much if a person is eating a diet that is basically a whole food diet that focuses on protein and consume fewer carbs and generally don't consume any grains, like a low carb diet, then consuming oatmeal will not have those same effects and will actually increase blood sugar causing a rise in insulin to then store in the liver as a triglyceride. sorry for the long post, which I'm sure is pretty boring for most people.

 

[dragnlaw]

Just kidding, well said, at least for the parts I understood.

 

[KatyCooks]

Nice post Kathleen. Are you in the medical field, just curious.

I just want to expand on your post.

Sweet taste was an evolutionary adaption of early hominins and homo sapiens where it was an advantage as it allowed them to store fat for times of scarcity and limited food availability especially for people living above the 39th parallel where winter was a pretty devastating food scarcity time event. It's part of the "optimal foraging theory" where foragers gathered food sources that created the least amount of time for the most calories collected.

Humans seek out natural sources of sweet like fruit, berries and honey which were also seasonal and only available for very short periods of time when compared over a 1 year time line. This plus our adaption from our closest ancestor, chimpanzees to actually put on body fat in the 20 to 30% mark where chimps are only 3 or 4% body fat allowed us to go quite a while, weeks actually or more without eating anything, so it's a big adaptive advantage when humans decided to populate the globe around 300,000 years ago.

The advent of agriculture did change the way humans consumed sugar, especially with the cultivation of crops like sugarcane and sugar beet. Where that adaption was an advantage it's now in modern times the main cause of non communicable diseases in most populations that consume a diet that closely resembles anything that looks like the Standard American Diet where over 70% of the population consume this diet which also comprises of over 75% from processed foods with 60% being ultra processed foods mostly comprised of refined carbs, sugar, salt and refined seed oils.

The human body is not designed to handle the chronic intake levels of sugar which overwhelms the liver which causes pretty much all the non communicable diseases associated with it like insulin resistance, fatty liver, PCOS, high blood pressure, cancer, cardiovascular disease, dementia and lately Alzheimer's.

This is of course pretty easily preventable if we do a few things, and one is consume sugar in moderation from natural sources, consume less processed foods and more foods from natural sources. Basically consume a whole food diet as much as you can and personally I default to the 80/20 rule and that works for me, and I'm also low carb.

The other point I want to make is on your comment "studies have shown the daily oatmeal whether it is overnight oats or regular oatmeal can help get your numbers moving in the right direction as well as help with cholesterol."

All of these studies are epidemiological, so basically observational, which is fine if it generates more studies or conversation but to make health claims is probably not really warranted. Yeah, lucky charms and fruit loops with marshmallows was probably not the smartest thing the AHA got behind and promoted as healthy. Anyway back to oatmeal. We need to look through the lens of context and dosage. If oatmeal is replacing a diet where the person is consuming a really terrible SAD diet, then yes consuming oats will generate improved blood markers. Not so much if a person is eating a diet that is basically a whole food diet that focuses on protein and consume fewer carbs and generally don't consume any grains, like a low carb diet, then consuming oatmeal will not have those same effects and will actually increase blood sugar causing a rise in insulin to then store in the liver as a triglyceride. sorry for the long post, which I'm sure is pretty boring for most people.

Hi Pictonguy.

Regarding your final paragraph - I don't enjoy porridge, but I have it every so often as it is supposed to be so healthy - usually with some flaked almonds and some homemade rosehip syrup to make it palatable. I eat a pretty balanced diet generally and cook most things myself. (I eat plenty of nuts and seeds and don't have a sweet tooth, so direct sugar intake is not too bad.)

Are you saying I needn't bother eating porridge as it won't make any difference really? I would happily stop eating porridge!

 

[taxlady]

Hi Pictonguy.

Regarding your final paragraph - I don't enjoy porridge, but I have it every so often as it is supposed to be so healthy - usually with some flaked almonds and some homemade rosehip syrup to make it palatable. I eat a pretty balanced diet generally and cook most things myself. (I eat plenty of nuts and seeds and don't have a sweet tooth, so direct sugar intake is not too bad.)

Are you saying I needn't bother eating porridge as it won't make any difference really? I would happily stop eating porridge!

Didn't you use white flour to make hamburger buns? Is white flour and white bread a regular part of your diet? The oats are healthier than that. Or you could substitute wholemeal flour and breads instead of the oats. BTW, oats are tasty as an addition to bread recipes.

 

[dragnlaw]

This is where sometimes it is better not to dive into science too deep. Things are too easily misconstrued.
No, Katy, I honestly don't think you should stop.

 

[KatyCooks]

I did indeed use white flour for the hamburger buns Taxy. But that was a very rare event. Mostly I use multiseed/multigrain bread (not home made). I very rarely eat cakes, biscuits or chocolates and my favourite snacks are nuts of all varieties. I'm not against oats at all, just that if it's not that beneficial, I can stop eating something in a form I don't enjoy!

 

[KatyCooks]

This is where sometimes it is better not to dive into science too deep. Things are too easily misconstrued.
No, Katy, I honestly don't think you should stop.

This is a fascinating thread don't you think Dragn? I have been interested in food and nutrition ever since my school days of "Home Economics". Balance has been my keyword - not too much of anything - and as much variety as possible - but also a little treat every so often so you don't feel deprived. Works for me!

 

[blissful]

"All of these studies are epidemiological, so basically observational, which is fine if it generates more studies or conversation but to make health claims is probably not really warranted."

I can't agree with this statement because of all the study of regions in the world where people live longer and healthier lives, like the blue zones. They are an example of a more successful people and their more healthy diet/activities, than the American standard diet and lifestyle. If healthier is a measure of less disease and longer lives, then the blue zones are healthier.
The china study, also a study of some areas of china at the time of the study, some regions had more or less disease and their diets and activities made a difference. The china study was also observational.

Follow whatever examples you want to. It's your health. Be empowered to take charge of your health. You have free will.

People live their lives by following examples, that is one of the reasons families have similar disease rates. They eat and cook what their parents ate and cooked. Genetics is one factor but environment (eating and cooking like your parents) pulls the trigger on disease for a majority of common diseases.