Medium chain triglycerides: an option to earn calories

While it is more common to hear comments related to the most convenient way to lose weight, there is also a large group of people eager to find the best way to gain energy or gain weight healthfully. And here is where we get to hear about the medium chain triglycerides.

However, the word TRIGLYCERIDES has a negative connotation since it is related to cholesterol and diseases related to these disorders, is necessary to clarify that the type of medium chain triglycerides , are beneficial for weight gain. We will go in detail and develop the subject to avoid questions.

What are triglycerides?

Triglycerides (named for their chemical structure) are the main type of fat carried by the body. After eating, the body digests fats from food and releases triglycerides into the blood. They are transported around the body for energy or stored as fat. The liver also produces some changes in triglycerides and cholesterol. The liver can change any source of excess calories into triglycerides.
The triglyceride levels vary with age, and also depend on how recently ingested food before the test. The measurement is more accurate if you have not eaten in 12 hours prior to examination. The normal value is 150 mg / dL. For those who suffer from heart problems, levels of this substance must be less than 100 mg / dl.

If the value has a normal cholesterol, high triglycerides do not appear to be a risk factor for heart disease, but it can be risky to be associated with diabetes and pancreatitis.

How are triglycerides associated with cholesterol?

When a person eats, triglycerides combine with a protein in their blood to form what are called lipoproteins. These particles contain lipoprotein cholesterol . To form the triglyceride in the liver process is similar, the liver takes over from carbohydrate and protein meal and fat changes. This fat then combines with protein and cholesterol into very low density lipoproteins, which are released into the bloodstream.

What causes high triglyceride levels?

This can have several causes:

• Excess weight: triglycerides generally increase with increasing weight
• Excessive calories: Triglycerides rise as they gain weight or eat too many calories, especially from sugar and alcohol. Alcohol increases the production of triglycerides in the liver.
• Age: Triglyceride levels steadily increase with age.
• Drugs: Some drugs such as contraceptives, steroids, diuretics cause increased levels of triglycerides.
• Disease: diabetes, hypothyroidism, kidney disease and liver are associated with high levels of triglycerides. Among the groups to be more carefully monitor their levels of triglycerides are diabetics and women after menopause. Over 75% of diabetics have high triglyceride levels and 30% of women who have gone through menopause suffer from this problem.
• Heritage: some forms of high levels of triglycerides occur among members of one family.

On the bright side: medium chain triglycerides

The medium chain triglycerides (MCT stands for English) is a single source of calories and is characterized by a rapid and complete oxidation and free fatty deposits. Which give an individual a very important contribution of calories available instantly. The medium chain triglycerides are fats or lipids, whose advantage lies in its rapid metabolism.

Fats are also an unusual chemical structure that allows the body digest more easily. Most fats are dissolved in the intestine and refurbished in a way which can be transported in the blood. But MCTs are absorbed intact and taken to liver where are used directly for energy . In this sense, are processed very similarly to carbohydrates.

The MCT are sufficiently different from other fats so that these can be used as substitutes for fat calories for people in need, but are unable to absorb or metabolize normal fats.

MCT to supplement caloric intake

Some products generate additional heat which is rapidly metabolized like carbohydrates, or energy is immediately but with the advantage of providing twice calories without depleting their reserves of glycogen and thus appearing before the tiredness and fatigue. Also has the great advantage that it does not accumulate as body fat. 

There are products that are added Essential Fatty Acids, that are called essential because the human body cannot synthesize and therefore need to ingested with the diet, as required for growth, maintenance and operation of numerous physiological processes . These was added to avoid gaps that might appear, as if taken only as an input MCT lipid disorders appear in the body, precisely because of its essentiality.

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