Study: High-GI Carb Intake Increases Risk of Heart Disease in Women

Posted By elissa on Apr 13, 2010 | 1 comment

Hot off the presses:

The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition study  (EPICOR) study investigated the association of glycemic index and dietary glycemic load with CHD in a large and heterogeneous cohort of Italian men and women. Researchers studied 47,749 volunteers (15,171 men and 32,578 women) who completed a dietary questionnaire. Researchers calculated participants overall carbohydrate intakes as well as the average glycemic index of the foods they consumed and the glycemic loads of their diets.

During a median of 7.9 years of follow-up, 463 CHD cases (158 women and 305 men) were identified. Women in the highest carbohydrate intake quartile had approximately twice the risk of CHD than did those in the lowest quartile, with no association found in men (P=0.04). Increasing carbohydrate intake from high-GI foods was also significantly associated with greater risk of CHD in women, whereas increasing the intake of low-GI carbohydrates was not.

Ok, it was an epidemiological study, which means that “cause and effect” were not established.  But – in this case – such a connection is certainly plausible.  As the researchers noted:

…the differences in the sexes could be because the adverse changes associated with carbohydrate intake, including triglyceride levels, are stronger risk factors for heart disease in women than in men. “We tentatively suggest the adverse effects of a high glycemic diet in women are mediated by sex-related differences in lipoprotein and glucose metabolism, but further prospective studies are required to verify a lack of association of a high dietary glycemic load with cardiovascular disease in men,”

Although I’m not carb-phobic, I’ve yet to see the average person subsisting on a diet rich in high-GI/GL carbs who was happy with either his/her weight, body comp or overall health.  Such diets are bad news in general, so it wouldn’t surprise me in the least to see this conclusion hold up.