Ok so here is a simplified way of looking at it:As I understand from the second quote where there is saturated fat, the rate of triglycerides is low. This situation seemed to me the opposite of the first quote. And so I don't know if triglycerides are useful or not for health. Is the triglyceride form mentioned in both quotes different? I could not find what I missed. I'm confused about this. I would be appreciated if anyone interested in the subject helps me.
Dietary fat is broken down in the gut to yield triglycerides (three fatty acids bound with a glycerol backbone).
Dietary triglycerides are absorbed through the lymphatic system, are transported through various organs and used directly as a fuel source, can be packaged up by the liver, or alternatively taken up by adipose (fat) tissues for storage. MCT oil is included in this camp.
On the other hand, fasting blood levels of triglycerides are a clinical measurement of the resident triglycerides floating around in the blood. When these triglycerides are high, it is usually not coming from dietary intake of fat (triglycerides) but rather the internal adipose stores.
Basically, high triglycerides in the BLOOD is demonstrative of metabolic syndrome (energy OVERLOAD), often fatty liver and visceral adiposity (fat around the organs).
In a healthy person, triglycerides are released all of the time from fat stores during any minor fasting periods. Also, triglycerides will spike after a meal, and then quickly go down shortly after. This happens because their other tissues take up the triglycerides from the blood very quickly to burn for energy.
In an unhealthy person (metabolically speaking) - when someones cells are already overloaded with energy, the cells not want any more. In fact, it is dangerous for cells to take up too much energy (glucose or fat), simply because they are not equipped to handle it and end up producing excess free radicals. Diabetes and metabolic syndrome are, at the most fundamental level, energy-overload conditions. Hence, cells will reject glucose, and cells will also reject triglycerides.
This leads to high blood glucose levels in conjunction with high triglyceride levels, and is generally very dangerous for numerous reasons.
It is actually for this reason that ketogenic diets and/or fasting works so well. Fasting causes the cells to use up the energy they have stored up, reversing the "energy overload" and rapidly causing them to take up glucose and triglycerides. This causes a drop in blood levels, and also promotes the breakdown of fat stores to release more triglycerides to meet the increased demand of energy.
It is also the primary reason that intense exercise also works so well for these energy-overload conditions. It is using up the energy stores inside the cell, removing the "block" on metabolism, and allowing cells to take up more energy (glucose and fat).
The primary determinant of whether a cell takes up energy (is insulin resistant or not), is intracellular demand for energy. When there is little demand, then cells will reject it. Therefore, any strategies that can be used to increase energy demand will, by definition, also be effective at reversing metabolic conditions
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