Turns out, a carb is not just a carbat least not for women hoping to prevent heart disease. In a study conducted by the Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori in Milan, Italy and published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers found that carbohydrates with high glycemic index can more than double the risk of heart disease in womenthough not in men. The glycemic index is an indicator of how quickly a food raises blood sugar levels. When blood sugar increases rapidly it also can increase triglycerides while, at the same time, lowering protective HDL cholesterol.
The Italian study looked at the answers to the dietary questionnaires of over 47,000 adults. The women who consumed the most carbohydrates overall had twice the risk of developing heart disease as the women consumed the least carbohydrates, however, when the researchers separated out the type of carbohydrates eaten, it was those in the high glycemic index category that were associated with the risk. The low glycemic index carbs were not. White bread, cookies, highly processed and sugary cereals, pastries, candy and potatoes are examples of high glycemic index carbohydrates. Low glycemic index carbohydrates include most vegetables, some fruits, legumes, whole grains and low-fat dairy products.
Carbohydrates of any kind did not seem to increase the likelihood of heart disease in men. This may be We tentatively suggest that the adverse effects of a high glycemic diet in women are mediated by sex-related differences in lipoprotein and glucose metabolism, the researchers concluded, but further prospective studies are required to verify a lack of association of a high dietary glycemic load with cardiovascular disease in men.
