Hi Maria,

Unfortunately, the answer is yes.  Alcohol especially impacts your triglycerides.  If you are not familiar with triglycerides, your total cholesterol number is made up of three things - LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, and triglycerides.  Triglycerides are a type of fat and alcohol causes the liver to release more triglycerides into circulation. 

So, if you have high triglycerides I recommend strictly limiting alcohol, if your triglycerides are fine, but you have high cholesterol, drink in moderation (no more than 1 drink/day for women, 2 drinks/day for men; 1 drink = 12 oz beer, 4 oz wine, 1 ½ ounce hard liquor).

All the best,

Lisa Nelson, RD, LN

Lower Cholesterol

Reggy

7/27/11 7:51am

Hi Lisa

 

Thanks for a comprehensive answer. you seem to be knowlegeable about this.

 

are you saying any kind of alcohol (beer, whisky, wine and etc) causes higher cholesterol? i normally drink beer a lot during weekends, an approximate of 18 beers every week from friday to sunday - 6 beers per day on average.

 

which type of alcohol is better as compared to the others?

 

2fast4u

7/28/11 7:26pm

The type of alcohol does not matter, it all metabolizes as sugar which causes higher serum TGL's just as surgars, breads and pastas do. They are all empty carbs and all cause elevated serum TGL's.

 

Jon